Reading the Last Olympian
by Percabethgirl2645
Summary: Percy and friends read the Last Olympian. Percabeth.
1. We Find the Book

_Author's note: 6/6/14_

_Hello! I'm editing this first chapter because, well, it looked like crap before. I hate when writing is all cramped. It's difficult to read. It was my first time on fanfiction, and the layout and spacing was weird, so I'm fixing it now. Hope you like it still!_

It was a normal day for demigods at Camp Half-Blood. Clarisse was bullying the new the new campers. Annabeth and Percy were sitting under a tree, Annabeth stroking his hair, him dozing in her lap.

But Grover Underwood, satyr, and Percy's best friend, was distracted. He kept asking, "Have you seen Percy and Annabeth?" Everyone he would ask would smirk and reply, "She's probably stroking his hair while he's napping in her lap."

He quickly took a scan around camp, and spotted a head of golden blonde hair, with a head of dark black hair in its lap. He quickly trotted over and said, "Annabeth! Percy! I have something I want to show you!" Percy, startled, by the sudden call of his name, snorted awake and sat up.

With a grin on his face he hugged and said, "G-man, I didn't know that you got back from Kentucky? Find anyone?" Grover shook his head dejectedly and replied, "No, but Gleeson says he's tracking some in Arizona. Anyway, I came back home to show you guys something." He held up a book that said The Last Olympian. Percy and Annabeth stared openmouthed and Percy muttered, "Crap."

Just then, the Stoll brothers, Clarisse, Chris, and Rachel came over. The Stoll brothers, Rachel, and Chis waved, while Grover showed them the book, while Clarisse smirked at the couple and asked, "How're the lovebirds doing?"

Percy and Annabeth blushed profusely. Clarisse then turned to Grover and asked, "So goat-boy, what cha got there?" Grover answered, "Just Percy's myth about how he defeated Kronos." In a split second after, Percy covered Grover's mouth and hissed, "Dude, don't tell the whole camp. There are some embarrassing moments there."

Grover shoved his hand away, "All right, jeez calm down." Percy let go and said a little too quickly, "I'm calm. Haha, why wouldn't I be calm right? There's nothing to be uptight about." He gave a nervous laugh as he glanced down at his feet.

Annabeth laughed, "Aww, Seaweed Brain, it's okay. I've been through all the embarrassing stuff with you anyways. I just want to see how your kelp-filled brain functions."

"But-"

"No buts," Annabeth said firmly. "We're reading this."

She snatched the book from Grover and led the others to a small clearing in the woods to begin.

AN: Hope you liked it!


	2. I Go Cruising With Explosives

A/n: HI everyone. First of all I would like to thank everyone who sent me reviews, added me to story alert, subscribed, etc. You guys mad me so happy! And here is my disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS. THAT HONOR GOES TO RICK RIORDAN. Constructive criticism is really needed. Here's the chapter, it will be in Percy's POV. P.S. I forgot to mention that the book is written in ancient Greek, and Rachel can read it 'kay? Awesome.

"Who wants to read first?" I asked nervously. "I will," said a voice said behind me. Startled, I jumped up, and spun around, Riptide drawn. Standing there was Thalia dressed as the lieutenant of Artemis' hunters. "Jeez Percy," she said grinning, "calm down." "I'm calm," I said, grumbling while Annabeth hugged Thalia. I was half dreading that Thalia would come. Don't get me wrong, Thalia's one of my best friends. I would trust her with my life. She's like Annabeth's sister. A really frightening when she's mad, and will scare the crud out of you with arrows and lightning kind of sister. "Seriously though Percy," she said growing serious, "I wanna read. But give me a hug. I haven't seen you guys in a long time." As I quickly hugged her I thought a quick prayer to Poseidon. _Poseidon, _I thought, _please don't let me die by Thalia's hand. Or Annabeth's for that matter. I know they both know I'm with Annabeth now, but just in case they forget that vital fact in their rage, help me! I haven't even taken Annabeth on a second date yet! Er, could you keep this thought from Athena? She'd kill me. Thanks. _

"Let's read," Thalia concluded. She cleared her throat, while Annabeth rolled her eyes, albeit smiling. Thalia started, **I Go Cruising with Explosives. **Everyone's expressions immediately saddened as they remembered Beckendorf's death. Thalia read on,

" **The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car. Up until then, I was having a great afternoon. Technically I wasn't supposed to be driving because I wouldn't turn sixteen for another week, but my mom and my stepdad, Paul, took my friend Rachel-"**

Rachel blushed, and Annabeth's eyes narrowed suspiciously. I restrained myself from running right out of the clearing, screaming in terror. Annabeth's an awesome girlfriend, and a beautiful one at that, but she's a daughter of Athena and Athena's plans always work. That gives me a legit reason to be scared when she's mad.  
>Thalia continued reading,<p>

"-**and me to this private stretch of beach on the South Shore, and Paul let us borrow his Prius for a short spin.**

Connor and Travis both said simultaneously, "Man, Paul's losing his touch." I stared at them indignantly, "Whaddaya mean? I'm not responsible enough?" " Well," they replied looking at each other, "You do have that talent for having bad things happen to you at the most inconvenient time." I eyed them grudgingly and replied, "You got a point there."

Thalia looked at us with an annoyed expression. "If I could get back to reading now, that'd be great." Clarisse spoke up as well, "Yeah I wanna know about Prissy's complicated life." Chris, Connor, and Travis nodded earnestly. I sighed and waved on Thalia on to continue my "complicated life" as Clarisse put it. Thalia continued,

**"Now, I know you're thinking, **_**Wow, that was really irresponsible of him, blah, blah, blah **_

"That's exactly what we were thinking!" the Connor and Travis cried out. Thalia glared at them and continued reading,

"**but Paul knows me pretty well. He's seen me slice up demons and leap out of exploding buildings, so he probably figured taking a car a few hundred yards wasn't exactly the most dangerous thing I'd done."**

"I don't know Percy," said Grover, chuckling, "don't you remember our very first quest? We didn't even make it through the whole bus ride without getting attacked by the Kindly Ones." I thought back to that memory, and I started laughing too. I hadn't realized how weird (and dangerous) my life was going to become after that. After we were done laughing, Thalia went on with the story,  
>"Anyway<strong>,<strong>

** Rachel and I were driving along.  
>It was a hot August day. Rachel's red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a white blouse over her swimsuit. I'd never seen her in anything but ratty T-shirts and paint-splattered jeans before, and she looked like a million golden drachmas.<strong>

_Poseidon, help me!_ I thought, as I scooted slowly away from Thalia who had on a frown, with her left eyebrow threatening to escape into her hair, while my beautiful girlfriend crossed her arms, grumbled and shook her curly blonde hair out of her face. Rachel was blushing and throwing Annabeth an _I'm sorry! _look. _Well_, I thought,_ I'm still alive. That gives me more time to plan my escape. _ Grover, Chris, and Clarisse, were all frowning, but the Stoll brothers were quietly laughing in their little corner, obviously enjoying the looks I was currently receiving from my angry girlfriend and the lieutenant of Artemis. I gave them my _you laugh, you die _stare, and that shut them up. "Right," Thalia said, still frowning at me, "let's continue." She started to read,

** "Oh, pull up right there!" she told me. We parked on a ridge overlooking the Atlantic. The sea is always one of my favorite places, but today it was especially nice- glittery green and smooth as glass,**

"Of course it looked nice, the sea always looks nice to you, you're a son of Poseidon for Zeus's sake!" Connor exclaimed. "Shut up!" everyone else, including his brother, hissed. Thalia continued to read,

"**as though my dad was keeping it calm just for us. My dad, by the way, is Poseidon. He can do stuff like that. "So," Rachel smiled at me.**  
><strong> "About that invitation." "Oh… right." I tried to sound excited. <strong>

Annabeth cocked her head curiously. **  
><strong>"It didn't really work, you know," Rachel told me.  
>"Ohh… sorry," I said, my face threatening to blush Clifford red.<p>

"Yeah Prissy, your big noble head got in the way," Clarisse added.  
>"Ha ha," I said dryly.<br>"Can we get on with it! At this rate we won't even make it past the first chapter!" Thalia demanded. Everyone muttered a general agreement, but before Thalia could start, I had to open my big mouth and mutter, "Jeez, demanding much?" Thalia's head snapped up and asked, "What'd you say Jackson?" "Nothing, nothing," I said quickly. "Sure, sure. I'll find out later," muttered Thalia. She finally started to read again,

"**I mean, she'd asked me to her family's vacation house on ST. Thomas for three days. I didn't get a lot of offers like that. My family's idea of a fancy vacation was a weekend in a rundown cabin on Long Island with some movie rentals and a couple of frozen pizzas,**

"You know that doesn't actually sound so bad," Annabeth remarked. "Yeah, but there are spiders in the cupboards," I smirked. She shuddered, "Never mind."

"Anyway," said Thalia, "back to the story…

** and here Rachel's folks were willing to let me tag along to the Caribbean. Besides, I seriously needed a vacation. This summer had been the hardest of my life.**

"Please," Grover said. I stared at him. "What? It was not the hardest. What about the time when Annabeth was kidnapped, eh? You were pretty worried." He smirked, and I blushed. "Aww!" said Annabeth looking at me. "You were worried?" "Ahem!" Thalia said, "No more interruptions!"

** The idea of taking a break even for a few days was really tempting. Still, something big was supposed to go down any day now. I was "on call" for a mission. Even worse, next week was by birthday. There was this prophecy that said when I tuned sixteen, bad things would happen. "Percy," she said, "I know the timing is bad. But it's**_** always **_**bad for you, right?" She had a point. "I really want to go," I promised. "It's just-" "The war." I nodded**_**. **_**I didn't like talking about it, but Rachel knew. Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist-the magic veil that distorts human vision. She'd seen monsters. She'd met some of the other demigods who were fighting the Titans and their allies. She'd even been there last summer when the chopped-lord Kronos rose out of his coffin in a terrible new form-**

Everyone shuddered. -

**, and she'd earned my permanent respect by nailing him in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush. She put her hand on my arm. "Just think about it, okay? We don't leave for a couple of days. My dad…" Her voice faltered. "Is he giving you a hard time?" I asked. Rachel shook her head in disgust. "He's trying to be**_** nice **_**to me, which is almost worse. He wants me to go to Clarion Ladies Academy in the fall." "The school where your mom went?" "It's a stupid finishing school for society girls, all the way in New Hampshire. Can you see me in finishing school?" **

"Weird," Connor and Travis said. The both looked at each other and laughed simultaneously. "Wow," they said again at the same time. They opened their mouths again to say something, but Thalia cut in saying, "Guys. Shut your mouths. It's weird and annoying." They nodded, cowering.

**I admitted the idea sounded pretty dumb. Rachel was into urban art projects and feeding the homeless and going to protest rallies to "Save the Endangered Yellow-bellied Sapsucker" and stuff like that.**

Rachel brightened and said, "That was my favorite! See, what we did was we painted our T-shirts yellow and -" "Rachel," I cut in, "you can tell us about the Yellow-bellied sapsuckers later." "Fine," she said grumbling.

**I'd never even seen her wear a dress. It was hard to imagine her learning to be a socialite. **

Everyone nodded in agreement, even Rachel.

**She sighed. "He thinks if he does a bunch of nice stuff for me, I'll feel guilty and give in." "Which is why he agreed to let me come with you guys on vacation?" "Yes… but Percy, you'd be doing me a huge favor. It would be **_**so **_**much better if you were with us. Besides, there's something I wanna talk-" She stopped abruptly. "Something you want to talk about?" I asked. "You mean… so serious we'd have to go to St. Thomas to talk about it?" She pursed her lips. "Look, just forget it now. Let's pretend we're normal people. We're out for a drive, and we're watching the ocean, and it's nice to be together. I could tell something was bothering her, but she put on a brave smile. The sunlight made her hair look like fire. We'd spent a lot of time together this summer. I hadn't exactly planned that way, but the more serious things got at camp, I found myself needing to call Rachel and get away, just for some breathing room. I needed to remind myself that the mortal world was still out there, away from all the monsters using me as their personal punching bag. "Okay," I said, "Just a normal afternoon and two normal people." She nodded. "And so … hypothetically, if these two people liked each other, what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl huh?" **

Annabeth's eye twitched. Rachel cringed.

** "Oh…"I felt like one of Apollo's sacred cows- slow, dumb, and bright red.**

Conner, Travis, and Chris were quietly chuckling in their corner.

** "Um…" I can't pretend hadn't thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than… well, than some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking. Rachel didn't hide much. She let you know how she felt. I'm not sure what I would have done next- but I was so distracted, I didn't notice the huge black form swooping down from the sky until four hooves land on the hood of the Prius with a **_**WUMP-WUMP-CRUNCH! **_

"Blackjack," Everyone said.

_**Hey, boss **_**a voice said in my head. **_**Nice car! **_**Blackjack the pegasus was an old friend of mind, so I tried not to get too annoyed by the craters he just put in the hood; but I didn't think my stepdad would be real stoked. **

"Actually," I said thoughtfully, thinking back, "It helped him believe I was a demigod. He didn't believe me at first."

Thalia continued,** "Blackjack," I sighed, "What are you –"Then I saw who was riding on his back, and I knew my day was about to get a lot more complicated. "'Sup, Percy." Charles Beckendorf, senior counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, would make most monsters cry for their mommies. He was huge, with ripped arm muscles from working in the forges every summer, two years older than me, and one of the camp's best armorsmiths. He made some seriously ingenious mechanical stuff. A month before, he's rigged a Greek firebomb in the bathroom of a tour bus that was carrying a bunch of monsters across the country. The explosion took out a whole legion of Kronos's evil meanies as soon as the first harpy went **_**flush**_**. **

Everyone nodded and grinned as they remembered this.

** Beckendorf was dressed for combat. He wore a bronze breastplate and war helm with black camo pants and a sword strapped to his side. His explosions bag was slung over his shoulder. "Time?" I asked. He nodded grimly. A clump formed in my throat. I'd known this was coming. We'd been planning it for weeks, but I half hoped it would never happen.**

Clarisse shook her head. "So naïve."

**Rachel looked up at Beckendorf. "Hi." "Oh, hey. I'm Beckendorf. You must be Rachel. Percy's told me… uh, he mentioned you." Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? Good." She glanced at Blackjack, who was clopping his hooves against the hood of the Prius.**

Rachel giggled, "Blackjack is so cute! When I went to camp on him, he didn't even object. Not that he could do anything, about it of course."

"**So I guess you guys have to go save the world now." "Pretty much," Beckendorf agreed. I looked at Rachel helplessly. "Would you tell my mom-" "I'll tell her. I'm sure she's used to it. And I'll explain to Paul about the hood." I nodded my thanks. I figured this might be the last time Paul loaned me his car. "Good luck." Rachel kissed me before I could even react. **

Annabeth's eye was twitching into overtime now. Rachel winced and mouthed _I'm _really_ sorry!_ I fidgeted, but resisted from running away. I finally decided to suck it up. "Annabeth," I said nervously, "my awesome and beautiful girlfriend, who's the architect of Olympus. Er…" I stopped. I had no idea what I was gonna say now. "What Percy?" she said, with a creepy, over sweet smile. "Anything ya wanna say?" She dropped the smile and glared at me. Thalia gave me a pointed look that clearly said _Hurt her, and you shall die a painful death buddy. _I gulped and blurted out, "I love you! Rachel's just a really close friend! And this happened two months ago!" Rachel nodded so much, it looked as if her head was about to fall off. Annabeth's glare softened and Thalia stopped mid- knuckle- crack. "You love me Seaweed Brain?" I nodded and squeezed her hand. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Well… okay. But don't ever do that again!" she said while punching my arm. "Aww!" squealed Thalia. Everyone stared at her with concern, even me. This was not typical Thalia behavior. "What?" she asked, look at everyone. "Is it wrong to be happy for my technical sister and her boyfriend? And as for you," she said talking to me, "Don't ever hurt her. Or you'll regret it." I nodded, swallowing hard. Truth be told, Thalia scared the crap outta me. "Now to read on!" She continued…

**"Now get going half-blood. Go kill some monsters for me." My last view of her was sitting in the shotgun seat of the Prius, her arms crossed, watching as Blackjack circled higher and higher, carrying Beckendorf and me into the sky. I wondered what Rachel wanted to talk to me about, and whether I'd live long enough to find out. "So," Beckendorf said, "I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth." "Oh, gods," I muttered, "Don't even think about it."**

Annabeth glared at me. I shrugged, with a lopsided smile. Her glare softened and she kissed me again, on the lips. "Eeww!" everyone shouted, including Thalia and Grover, albeit they were grinning. "Real mature guys!" Annabeth said. Thalia said, "Jeez, get a room! Let's read already!" Annabeth and I blushed while Thalia read on.

**Beckendorf chuckled, and together we soared over the Atlantic. It was almost dark by the time we spotted out target. The **_**Princess Andromeda **_**glowed on the horizon- a huge cruise ship lit up yellow and white. From a distance, you'd think it was just a party ship, not the headquarters for the Titan lord. Then as you got closer, you might notice the giant figurehead- a dark haired maiden in a Greek chiton, wrapped in chains with a look of horror on her face, as if she could smell the stench of all the monsters she was being forced to carry.**

Everyone shuddered.

**Seeing the ship again twisted my gut into knots. I'd almost died twice on the **_**Princess Andromeda. **_**Now it was heading straight for New York. "You know what to do?" Beckendorf yelled over the wind**_**. **_**I nodded. We'd done dry runs at the dockyards in New Jersey, using abandoned ships as our targets. **

Clarisse scoffed. "It's not the same, not when it's a moving boat full of actual monsters and the Titan lord.

**I knew how little time we would have. But I also knew this was our best chance to end Kronos's invasion before it even started. "Blackjack," I said, "set us down on the lowest stern deck." **_**"Gotcha boss, **_**he said. **_**Man, I hate seeing that boat.**_

"Why does he call you boss?" Annabeth asked. I shrugged and replied, "I tell him not to, but he does it anyway." "Gah!" Thalia shouted, "No more interuptions!"

**Three years ago, Blackjack had been enslaved on the **_**Princess Andromeda**_** until he'd escaped with a little help from my friends and me. I figured he'd rather have his mane braided like My Little Pony than be back here again. "Don't wait for us," I told him. **_**But boss- **_**"Trust me," I said, "We'll get out by ourselves." Blackjack folded his wings like and plummeted toward the boat like a black comet. The wind whistled in my ears. I saw monsters patrolling the upper decks of the ship-**_** dracaenae **_**snake women, hellhounds, giants, and the humanoid seal-demons known as telkhines-but we zipped by so fast, none of them raised the alarm. We shot down the stern of the boat, and Blackjack spread his wings, lightly coming to a landing on the lowest deck. I climbed off, feeling queasy. **_**Good luck, boss, **_**Blackjack said.**_** Don't let them turn you into horse meat! **_** With that, my old friend flew off into the night. I took my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it, and Riptide sprang to full size- three feet of deadly Celestial bronze glowing in the dusk. Beckendorf pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. I thought it was a map or something. Then I realized it was a photograph. He started at it in the dim light- the smiling face of Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite. **

Everyone saddened.

**They'd started going out last summer, after years of the rest of us saying, "Duh, you guys like each other!" **

"Gee," Grover remarked, "that sounds kinda, I dunno, _familiar._" He looked at Annabeth and me pointedly. Thalia smirked, "Yeah. Your right Grover! Jeez, where have I heard it before?" Clarisse, Chris, Connor, and Travis were openly laughing. "Ahh, shut up guys," I told them.

**Even with all the dangerous missions, Beckendorf had been happier this summer than I'd ever seen him. "We'll make it back to camp," I promised. For a second I saw worry in his eyes. Then he put on his old confident smile. "You bet," he said. "Let's go blow Kronos back into a million pieces." Beckendorf led the way. We followed a narrow corridor to the service stairwell, just like we'd practiced, but we froze when we heard noises above us. "I don't care what your nose says!" snarled a half-human, half-dog voice- a telkhines. "The last time you smelled half- blood, it turned out to be a meat loaf sandwich!" "Meat loaf sandwiches are good!" a second voice snarled. "But this is half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!" "Bah, your brain isn't on board!"**

"Monsters," Clarisse said, shaking her head, "so stupid, it's amazing."

**They continued to argue, and Beckendorf pointed downstairs. We descended as quietly as we could. Two floors down, the voices of the telkhines started to fade. Finally we came to a metal hatch. Beckendorf mouthed the words "engine room." It was locked, but Beckendorf pulled some chain cutters out of his bag and split the bolt like it was made of butter. Inside, a row of yellow turbines the size grain silos churned and hummed. Pressure gauges and computer terminals lined the opposite wall. A telkhine was hunched over a console, but he was so involved in his work, he didn't notice us. He was about five feet tall, with slick black seal fur and stubby little feet. He had the head of a Doberman, but his clawed hands were almost human. He growled and muttered as he tapped on his keyboard. Maybe he was messaging his friends on .**

"Seriously Percy? ?" Annabeth asked. I shrugged. I mean it wasn't like I knew I was gonna have my _thoughts_ read. I can say whatever I want in there.

**I stepped forward, and he tensed, probably smelling something was wrong. He leaped sideways toward a big red alarm button, but I blocked his path. He hissed and lunged at me, but one slice of Riptide and he exploded into dust. "One down," Beckendorf said. "About five thousand to go." He tossed me a jar of thick green liquid- Greek fire, one of the most dangerous magical substances in the world. "Slap that one on the console," he said. "I'll get the turbines." We went to work. The room was hot and humid, and in no time we were drenched in sweat. The boat kept chugging along. Being the son of Poseidon and all, I have perfect bearings at sea. Don't ask me how, but I could tell we were at 40.19 degrees North, 71.90 degrees West, making 18 knots, which meant the ship would arrive in New York Harbor by dawn. **

"So cool," I heard someone mutter.

**I had just attached a second jar of Greek fire to the control panels when I heard the pounding of feet on metal steps- so many creatures coming down the stairwell I could hear them over the engines. Not a good sign. I locked eyes with Beckendorf. "How much longer?" "Too long." He tapped his watch, which was out remote control detonator. "I still have to wire the receiver and prime the charges. Ten more minutes at least." Judging from the sound of the footsteps, we had about ten seconds. "I'll distract them," I said. "Meet you at the rendezvous point." "Percy-" "Wish me luck." He looked like he wanted to argue. The whole idea had been to get in and out without being spotted. But we were going to have to improvise. "Good luck," he said. I charged out the door. **

"Ah Percy," Annabeth said while shaking her head, "Why d'you have to be so rash in your decisions?"

**A half dozen telkhines were tromping down the stairs. I cut through them with Riptide faster than they could yelp. I kept climbing- past another telkhine, who was so startled he dropped his Lil' Demons lunch box. I left him alive- partly because his lunch box was cool, partly so he could raise the alarm and hopefully get his friends to follow me rather than head to toward the engine room.**

"Tch. Those boxes are so unreliable. The handles break so easily," Conner said. I stared at him. "What? I'm a son of Hermes. I steal stuff."

**I burst through a door onto deck six and kept running. I'm sure the carpeted hall had once been very plush, but over the last three years of monster occupation the wallpaper, carpet, and stateroom doors had been clawed up and slimed so it looked like the inside of a dragon's throat (and yes, unfortunately, I speak from experience). **

Rachel gagged and looked revolted.

**Back on my first visit to the Princess Andromeda, my old enemy Luke had kept some dazed tourist on board for show, shrouded in Mist so they didn't realize they were on a monster-infested ship. Now I didn't see any sign of the tourists. I hated to think what had happened to them, but I kind of doubted they'd been allowed to go home with their bingo winnings. I reached the promenade, a big shopping mall that took up the whole middle of the ship, and I stopped cold. In the middle of the courtyard stood a fountain. And in the fountain squatted a giant crab. I'm not talking "giant" like $7.99 all-you-can-eat Alaskan king crab. I'm talking **_**giant **_**like bigger than the fountain. **

Several mouths dropped, others were just like _please, I've seen worse._

**The monster rose ten feet out of the water. Its shell was mottled blue and green, its pincers longer than my body. If you've ever seen a crab's mouth, all foamy and gross with whiskers and snapping bits, you can imagine this one didn't look any better blown up to billboard size.**

Several looked disgusted, like _eww! Where has its mouth _been_?_

** Its beady black eyes glared at me, and I could see intelligence in them- and hate. The fact that I was the son of the sea god was not going to win me any points with Mr. Crabby. "FFFFffff**_**,**_**" it hissed, sea foam dripping from its mouth. The smell coming of it was like a garbage can full of fish sticks that had been sitting in the sun all week. **

Rachel gagged again.

**Alarms blared. Soon I was going to have lots of company and I had to keep moving. "Hey, crabby." I inched around the edge of the courtyard. "I'm just gonna scoot around you so-" The crab moved with amazing speed. It scuttled out of the fountain and came straight at me, pincers snapping. I dove into a gift shop, plowing through a rack of T-shirts. A crab pincer smashed the glass walls to pieces and raked across the room. I dashed back outside, breathing heavily, but Mr. Crabby turned and followed. "There!" a voice said from a balcony above me. "Intruder!" If I'd wanted to create a distraction, I'd succeeded, but this was not where I wanted to fight. If I got pinned down in center of the ship, I was crab chow. The demonic crustacean lunged at me. I sliced with Riptide taking off the tip of its claw.**

Clarisse scoffed. "It probably just felt a little pinch."

**It hissed and foamed, but it didn't seem very hurt. I tried to remember anything from the old stories that might help with this thing. Annabeth had told me about a monster crab- something about Hercules crushing it under his foot?**

Annabeth shook her head. "Percy, that isn't gonna work here. This crab is slightly bigger than your Reeboks y'know." Thalia and I looked at her oddly. She read the next line.

**That wasn't going to work here. This crab was slightly bigger than your Reeboks.**

Annabeth blinked, and Rachel said, "Wow. You guys are really in sync."

**Then a weird thought occurred to me. Last Christmas, my mom and I had brought Paul Blofis to our old cabin at Montauk, where we'd been going forever. Paul had taken me crabbing, and when he'd brought up a net full of the things, he'd shown me how crabs have a chink in their armor, right in the middle of their ugly bellies. The only problem was getting to the ugly belly. I glanced at the fountain, then at the marble floor, already slick from the scuttling crab tracks. I held my hand, concentrating on the water, and the fountain exploded. Water sprayed everywhere, three stories high, dousing the balconies and the elevators and the window of the shops. The crab didn't care. It loved water. It came at me sideways, snapping and hissing, and I ran straight at it, screaming, "AHHHHHHH!" Just before we collided, I hit the ground baseball-style and slid on the wet marble floor straight under the creature. It was like sliding under a seven-ton armored vehicle. All the crab had to do was sit and squash me, but before it realized what was going, I jabbed Riptide into the chink in its armor, let go of the hilt, and pushed myself out the backside. **

Clarisse nodded approvingly and said, "Not so crazy about the battle cry, but smart strategy."

**The monster shuddered and hissed. Its eyes dissolved. Its shell turned bright red as its insides evaporated. The empty shell clattered to the floor in a massive heap. I didn't have time to admire my handiwork. I ran for the nearest stairs while all around me monsters and demigods shouted orders and strapped on their weapons. I was empty-handed. Riptide, being magic, would appear in my pocket sooner or later, but for now it was stuck somewhere under the wreckage of the crab, and I had no time to retrieve it. In the elevator foyer on deck, a couple of **_**dracaenae**_** slithered across my path. From the waist up, they were women with green scaly skin, yellow eyes, and forked tongues. From the waist down, they had double snake trunks instead of legs. They held spears and weighted nets, and I knew from experience they could use them. "What isss thisss?" one said. "A prize for Kronosss!" I wasn't in the mood to play break-the-snake, but in front of me was a stand with a model of the ship, like a YOU ARE HERE display. I ripped the model off the pedestal and hurled it at the first **_**dracaena. **_**The boat smacked her in the face and she went down the ship. **

Chris cringed and said, "That's gonna leave a definite mark."

**I jumped over her, grabbing her friend's spear, and, swung her around. She slammed into the elevator, and I kept running toward the front of the ship. **

"Oi. So is that."

"**Get him!" she screamed. Hellhounds bayed. An arrow from somewhere whizzed past my face and impaled itself in the mahogany-paneled wall of the stairwell. I didn't care- as long as I got the monsters way from the engine room and gave Beckendorf more time. As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down. He looked like he'd just woken up from a nap. His armor was half on. He drew his sword and yelled, "Kronos!" but he sounded more scared than angry. He couldn't have been more than twelve- about the same age I was when I'd first arrived at Camp Half-Blood. That thought depressed me. The kid was getting brainwashed- trained to hate the gods and lash out because he'd been born half Olympian. Kronos was using him, and yet, the kid thought I was his enemy. No way was I going to hurt him. I didn't need a weapon for this. I stepped inside his strike and grabbed his wrist slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand. Then I did something I hadn't planned on. It probably jeopardized our mission, but I couldn't help it. "If you want to live," I told him," get of this ship **_**now**_**. Tell the other demigods." Then I shoved him down the stairs and sent him tumbling to the next floor. **

"You said you didn't wanna hurt him, but you pushed him down the stairs?" Rachel asked. I shrugged and replied, "Well, it's better than a sword in his arm."

Thalia kept reading…

**I kept climbing. Bad memories: a hallway ran past the cafeteria. Annabeth, my half-brother Tyson, and I had sneaked through here three years ago on my fist visit. I burst outside onto the main deck. Off the port bow, the sky was darkening from purple to black. A swimming pool glowed between two glass towers with more balconies and restaurant decks. The whole upper ship seemed eerily deserted. All I had to do was cross to the other side. Then I could take the staircase down to the helipad- our emergency rendezvous point. With any luck, Beckendorf would meet me there. We'd jump into the sea. My water powers would protect us both, and we'd detonate the charges from a quarter mile away. **

"So naïve," Clarisse muttered.

**I was halfway across the deck halfway the sound of a voice made me freeze. "You're late, Percy." Luke stood on the balcony above me, a smile on his scarred face. He wore jeans, a white T-shirt, and flip-flops, like he was a regular college-age guy, but his eyes told the truth. They were solid gold. **

I squeezed Annabeth's hand.

"**We've been expecting you for days." At first he sounded normal, like Luke. But then his face twitched. A shudder passed through his body as though he'd just drunk something nasty. His voice became heavier, ancient, and powerful- the voice of the Titan Lord Kronos. The words scraped down my spine like a knife blade. **

Everyone shuddered.

"**Come bow before me." "Yeah, that'll happen," I muttered. Laistrygonian giants filed in on either side of the swimming pool as if they'd been waiting for a cue. Each was eight feet tall with tattooed arms, leather armor, and spiked clubs. Demigod archers appeared in the balcony above Luke. Two hellhounds leaped down from the opposite balcony and snarled at me. Within seconds I was surrounded. A trap: there's no way they could have gotten into position so fast unless they'd know I was coming. I looked up at Luke, and anger boiled inside me. I didn't know if Luke's consciousness was even alive inside that body. Maybe, the way his voice had changed… or maybe it was Kronos adapting to his new form. I told myself it didn't matter. Luke had been twisted and evil long before Kronos possessed him. A voice in my head said: **_**I have to fight him eventually. Why not now?**_** According to that big prophecy, I was supposed to make a choice that saved or destroyed the world when I was sixteen. That was only seven days away. Why not now? If I really had the power, what difference would a week make? **

Clarisse shook her head and repeated, "Again Jackson, na-" I interrupted her, "I get it, naïve!"

**I could end this threat right here by taking down Kronos. Hey, I'd fought monsters and gods before. As if reading my thoughts, Luke smiled. No, he was **_**Kronos. **_**I had to remember that. "Come forward," he said. "If you dare." The crowd of monsters parted. I was sure somebody would stab me in the back, but they let me pass. I felt my pocket and found my pen waiting. I uncapped it, and Riptide grew into a sword. Kronos's weapon appeared in his hands- a six-foot long scythe, half Celestial bronze, half mortal steel. Jest looking at the thing made my knees turn to Jell-O. **

Everyone else nodded, agreeing.

**But before I could change my mind, I charged. Time slowed down. I mean**_** literally **_**slowed down, because Kronos had that power. I felt like I was moving through syrup. My arms were so heavy, I could barely raise my sword. Kronos smiled, swirling his scythe at normal speed and waiting for me to creep toward my death. I tried to fight his magic. I concentrated on the sea around me- the source of my power. I'd gotten better at channeling it over the years, but now nothing seemed to happen. I took another slow step forward. Giants jeered. **_**Dracaenae **_**hissed with laughter. **_**Hey, ocean, **_**I pleaded. **_**Any day now would be good. **_**Suddenly there was a wrenching pain in my gut. The entire boat lurched sideways, throwing monsters of their feet. Four thousand gallons of salt water surged out of the swimming pool, dousing me and Kronos and everyone on the deck. The water revitalized me, breaking the time spell, and I lunged forward. I struck at Kronos, but I was still too slow. I made the mistake of looking at his face- **_**Luke's face**_**- a guy who was once my friend. A much as I hated him, it was hard to kill him. Kronos had no such hesitation. He sliced downward with his scythe. I leaped back, and the evil blade missed by an inch, cutting a gash in the deck right between my feet. I kicked Kronos in the chest. He stumbled backward, but he was heavier than Luke should have been. It was like kicking a refrigerator. **

"Ouch. I've done that before," Rachel muttered.

**Kronos swung his scythe again. I intercepted with Riptide, but his strike was so powerful, my blade could only deflect it. The edge of the scythe shaved off my shirt sleeve and grazed my arm. It shouldn't have been a serious cut, but the entire side of my body exploded with pain. I remembered wheat a sea demon had once said about Kronos's scythe: **_**Careful, fool. One touch and the blade will sever your soul from your body. **_**Now I understood what he meant. I wasn't just losing blood. I could feel my strength, my will, my identity draining away. **

Annabeth squeezed my hand so hard, when she let go, it was white and stuck together.

**I stumbled backward, switching my sword to my left hand, and lunged desperately. My blade should've run him through, but it deflected off his stomach like I was hitting solid marble. There was no way he should've survived that. Kronos laughed. "A poor performance, Percy Jackson. Luke tells me you were never his match at swordplay." My vision started to blur. I knew I didn't have much time. "Luke had a big head," I said. "But at least it was **_**his **_**head." "A shame to kill you now," Kronos mused, "before the final plan unfolds. I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus." "You'll never get this boat to Manhattan." My arm was throbbing. Black spots danced in my vision. "And why would that be?" Kronos's golden eyes glittered. His face- Luke's face- seemed like a mask, unnatural and lit from behind by some evil power. **

Everyone winced.

"**Perhaps you are counting on your friend with the explosives?" He looked down at the pool and called, "Nakamura!" A teenage guy in full Greek armor pushed through the crowd. His left eye was covered with a black patch. I knew him, of course: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. I'd saved his life in the Labyrinth last summer, and in return, the little punk had helped Kronos come back to life. "Success, my lord," Ethan called. "We found him just as we were told." He clapped his hands, and two giants lumbered forward, dragging Charles Beckendorf between them. Beckendorf had a swollen eye and cuts all over his face and arms. His armor was gone and his shirt was nearly torn off. "No!" I yelled. Beckendorf met my eyes. He glanced at his hand like he was trying to tell me something. **_**His watch. **_**They hadn't taken it yet, and that was the detonator. Was it possible the explosives were armed? Surely the monsters would have dismantled them right away. **

"You give the monsters too much credit Percy. They're not that bright," Clarisse shook her head.

"**We found him amidships," one of the giants said, "trying to sneak to the engine room. Can we eat him now?" "Soon." Kronos scowled at Ethan. "Are you sure he didn't set the explosives?" "He was going **_**toward **_**the engine room, my lord." "How do you know that?" "Er…" Ethan shifted uncomfortably. "He was heading in that direction. And he told us. His bag is still full of explosives." Slowly, I began to understand. Beckendorf had fooled them.**

"Smart," Clarisse said under her breath.

**When he realized he was going to be captured, he turned to make it look like he was going the other way. He'd convinced them he hadn't made it to the engine room yet. The Greek fire might still be primed! But that didn't do us any good unless we could get of the ship and detonate. Kronos hesitated. **_**Buy the story,**_** I prayed. **

"The n-word," Clarisse muttered.

**The pain in my arm was so bad now I could barely stand. "Open his bag, "Kronos ordered. One of the giants ripped the explosives satchel from Beckendorf's shoulders. He peered inside, grunted, and turned it upside down. Panicked monsters surged backwards. If the bag really had been full of Greek fire jars, we would've all been blown up. But what fell out were a dozen cans of peaches. I could hear Kronos breathing, trying to control his anger. "Did you, perhaps," he said, "capture this demigod near the galley?" Ethan turned pale. "Um-" "And did you, perhaps, send someone to actually CHECK THE ENGINE ROOM!" Ethan scrambled back in terror, then turned on his heels and ran. I cursed silently. Mow we had only minutes before the bombs were disarmed. I caught Beckendorf's eyes again and asked a silent question hoping he would understand: **_**How long? **_**He cupped his fingers and thumb, making a circle. **_**Zero.**_** There was no delay on the timer at all. If he managed to press the detonator button, the ship would blow at once. We'd never be able to get far enough away before using it. The monsters would kill us first, or disarm the explosives, or both. Kronos turned toward me with a crooked smile. "You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, Percy Jackson. But it doesn't matter. We have you now. We've known you were coming for weeks. "He held out his hand and dangled a little silver bracelet with a scythe charm- the Titan lord's symbol. **

Everyone bowed their heads, remembering Silena.

**The wound in my arm was sapping my ability to think, but I muttered, "Communication device… spy at camp." Kronos chuckled. "You can't count on friends. They will always let you down. Luke learned that lesson the hard way. Now drop your sword and surrender to me or your friend dies." I swallowed. One of the giants had his hand around Beckendorf's neck. I was in no shape to rescue, and even if I tried, he would die before I got there. We both would. Beckendorf mouthed one word: **_**Go. **_**I shook my head. I couldn't just leave him. The second giant was still rummaging through the peach cans, which meant Beckendorf's left arm was free. **

"Beckendorf, why do you have to be so brave?" Annabeth muttered, breaking my hand.

**He raised it slowly- toward the watch on his right wrist. I wanted to scream, **_**NO!**_** Then down by the swimming pool, one of the **_**dracaenae **_**hissed, "What issss he doing? What isss that on hisss wrissst?"****Beckendorf closed his eyes tightly and brought his hand up to his watch. I had no choice. I threw my sword like a javelin at Kronos. It bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it did startle him. I pushed through the crowd of monsters and jumped off the side of the ship- toward the water a hundred feet below. I heard rumbling deep in the ship. Monsters yelled at me from above. A spear sailed past my ear. An arrow pierced my thigh, but I barely had time to register the pain. I plunged into the sea and willed the currents to take me far, far away- a hundred yards, two hundred yards. Even from that distance, the explosion shook the world. Heat seared the back of my head. The **_**Princess Andromeda **_**blew up from both sides, a massive fireball of green flame roiling into the dark sky, consuming everything. Beckendorf, I thought. Then I blacked out and sank like an anchor toward the bottom of the sea. **

At this point everyone had at least one tear roll down their cheek, including me.

A/N hey guys here's the reading of the first chapter. I was thinking, should I introduce Nico to the story, or no. He's kind of important so I was thinking I should, but I wanted to see what you guys thought. Reviews, subscriptions, adding my story to story alert, etc. mean a lot to me. My dad actually saw me dancing when I saw I got my first review. Seriously, dancing. Anyway please review! Hoped you like it. Constructive criticism is welcomeand wanted!


	3. I Meet Some Fishy Relatives

A/n You guys are awesome! Thanks for reading! Remember REVIEW! Seriously, it means a lot. I love the subscriptions, favorites, but reviews are great. I'm going to try to focus more on speaking and thoughts, 'cause I was reading my second chapter, where they read the first chapter of the first book, and I think there was too little stuff. Anyway, enjoy! Here is my disclaimer- anything in bold belongs to rick riordan. Plus all the characters belong to him too. By the way, I'm gonna introduce Nico in this chapter and then enough interruptions from our demigod peeps. :D (sorry for OOC-ness if you find any!) Please look for typos too. Those bother the heck out of me. PLEASE give me constructive criticism. My writing needs work! Plus, I think my Annabeth and Nico are a little OOC. Help me!

Annabeth's POV

After everyone had wiped away a tear or two, we heard a rustling noise in the back of our circular clearing. Percy let go of me (he was hugging me) and jumped up. I turned around. "Hey guy-" Nico began. Looking around at our sad faces, he cocked his eyebrow and said, "Who pissed on your guys' cheerios this morning?" I scowled. Percy replied, "Nobody _pissed _in anybody's cheerios. Besides, we're more of a Honey Bunches kind of group.(He said this with a little half smile on his face. What a goof.) We're reading books about my life. My demigod life that is. This particular one though, is from the second titan war." Nico cocked his head. "Books! Titan war?" But then he started to laugh, grabbing his stomach. "But," he said, his eyes watering, "Isn't this where you and Annabeth make out at the end?" I really don't whose face was redder. Percy, seaweed brain that he is, had to go for the witty comeback and said, "Mmm… yeeeeep." I swear I love him, I do, but sometimes I really don't doubt myself when I say his head is full of kelp. I mean he could've just kept his mouth shut, but nooooo, he had to open it and go _mmmm… yeeeeeep. _What a Seaweed Brain. A loveable, sweet, brave Seaweed Brain. Maybe I'll refuse to kiss him for the next hour or so. After Nico had controlled his laughter, he wiped the grass of his skull T-shirt and said, "Well? Are we gonna read or what?" Everyone muttered a general agreement. Thalia passed the book to Rachel, who was sitting next to her, and Rachel read, "**I Meet Some Fishy Relatives.**"

**Demigod dreams suck.**

** The thing is, they're never just _dreams._**

All the demigods in our circle scowled and agreed.

**They've got to be visions, omens, and ****all that other mystical stuff that makes my brain hurt. I dreamed I was in a dark palace at the top of a ****mountain. Unfortunately, I recognized it: the palace of the Titans on top of Mount Othrys, otherwise ****known as Mount Tamalpais, in California. The main pavilion was open to the night, ringed with black ****Greek columns and statues of the glowed against the black marble floor. ****In the center of the room, an armored giant struggled under the weight of a swirling funnel cloud-Atlas, ****holding up the sky. Two other giant men stood nearby over a bronze brazier, studying images in the ****flames. "Quite an explosion," one said. He wore black armor studded with sparkly dots like a starry ****night.**

Connor snickered. "Did you just say he was wearing _jewels _on his armor?" Chris snorted.  
>It was like you dropped a freaking laguhing bomb it was so loud.<br>I had to agree with him-I mean, can you imagine this Titan walking into a jewler's to ask if he can get his armor bejewled? (_A/n _I dunno where one does go to get his armor bejeweled, so i'm making it up.)  
>While the rest of us were still choking and giggling, Thalia had set out to restore order to the court. (An Get it?haha... i am such a geek) "Ahem!" Thalia glared at us, interrupting our conversation. "At this rate, we'll finish by the time you all are old enough to have kids! Let Rachel read?" Thalia glared at him and motioned for Rachel to continue.  
><strong><br>His face was covered in a war helm with a ram's horn curling on either side.  
>"It doesn't <strong>**matter," the other said.  
>This Titan was dressed in gold robes, with golden eyes like Kronos.<br>His entire ****body glowed.  
>He reminded me of Apollo, God of the Sun, except the Titan's light was harsher, and <strong>**his expression crueler.**

"Apollo's, like, the most laid back god of all, how do you compare him to this dude?" Nico asked Percy.  
>Percy shrugged. "Don't ask me, I'm supposed to have seaweed for brains."<br>He looked at me pointedly.  
>"You know you love it," I teased. "You'd probably get confused if I gave you a different nickname now."<br>He thought about this and replied, "Eh, you're probably right again Wise Girl."  
>I smiled cheekily," Aren't I always?"<br>"OH MY GODS, JUST SHUT UP SO WE CAN FINISH THE DANG CHAPTER!" Thalia roared.  
>Needless to say, everyone immediately backed off and Rachel continued in a hurry.<p>

**"The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed."**  
><strong>I narrowed my eyes, going through the memories of the Battle of Manhattan to see if i could<strong>  
><strong>The images in the fire were hard to make out: storms, buildings crumbling, mortals screaming in terror.<strong> **"I will go east to marshal our forces," the golden Titan said. "Krios, you shall remain and guard Mount ****Othrys."**

"Can you say control freak or what?" I asked.

**The ram horn dude grunted.  
>"I always get the stupid jobs. Lord of the South. Lord of <strong>**Constellations. Now I get to babysit Atlas while _you _have all the fun."**

I snorted. "Fun? What the Hades is this guy talking about? We kicked some Titan butt out there!"  
>"Especially me!" Clarrise, Connor, and Travis shouted.<br>They all eyed each other, and protested against each other.  
>"Nuh uh!"<br>"Yuh huh!"  
>"Nuh uh!"<br>"Yuh h-"  
>"COULD WE GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?"<br>5 drachmas if you could guess who bellowed that.

**Under the whirlwind of clouds,****Atlas bellowed in agony.****"Let me out, curse you! I am your greatest warrior. Take my burden so I ****may fight!" "Quiet!" the golden Titan roared. "You had your chance, Atlas. You failed. Kronos like ****you just where you are. As for you, Krios, do your duty."****"And if you need more warriors?" Krios ****asked. "Our treacherous nephew in the tuxedo will not do you much good in a fight."**

"Well," Thalia said thoughtfully," He is the titan of craftsmanship (A/n is that what grover said in TLO? i don't know cause my brother's reading the book right now, so I can't get it)... so he could be rather wily."  
>We all stared at her.<br>"What?" she asked.  
>Nico tried to say it.<br>"You... you just..."  
>"I just <em>what?"<br>_"You actually interrupted! Woah... What is the world coming to?" he asked.  
>"Oh shut up," she retorted.<br>**  
>The golden <strong>**Titan laughed. "Don't worry about him. Besides, the gods can barely handle our first little challenge. ****They have no idea how many others we have in store. Mark my words, in a few days' time, Olympus ****will be in ruins, and we will meet here again to celebrate the dawn of the Sixth Age!" The ****golden ****Titan erupted into flames and disappeared.****"Oh, sure," Krios grumbled. "He gets to erupt into ****flames. I get to wear these stupid ram's horns."THE**** scene shifted. Now I was outside the pavilion, ****hiding in the shadows of a Greek column. A boy stood near to me, eavesdropping on the Titans. He****had dark silky hair, pale skin, and dark clothes- my friend Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades. He looked ****straight at me, his expression grim.**

I cracked up, holding my side.  
>Percy looked at me with concern.<br>"Are... ah... are you ok?"  
>"Yeah," I answered, my head cocked. "Why wouldn't I be?"<br>"Well, I dunno how to break it to you... but you burst into laughter like a madman."  
>"Oh that," I said waving my hand airily. "It was cause Rachel read, "...his expression grim."<br>I cracked up again, but everyone's face was still blank.  
>"Um... you know," I replied, looking around at everyone's faces for a sign of recognition. "Because he's the son of Hades? <em>Grim <em>Reaper? Grim?"  
>The clearing broke into a chorus of <em>ohhh<em> and _ahh, now i get it. _

**"You see, Percy?" he whispered. "You're running out of time. Do ****you really think you can beat them without my plan?"**

Just then, a certain thought hit me.  
>What about Percy's Achilles spot?<br>I glanced at his face next to me. His face had paled and our eyes met. I knew he was thinking the same thing.

His words washed over me as cold as the

**ocean floor, and my dreams went black.**

Travis tsked. "Racist little Percy," he said jokingly. (A/n sorry if anyone thinks I'm being racist, i don't mean to be if that's what your thinking, that's just what my friend does when I refer to an inanamite object black or white.)

**"Percy?" a deep voice asked.**  
><strong>My head felt like it had been <strong>**microwaved in aluminum foil.**

"And how would you know what that felt like?" asked Rachel, looking genuinely interested.  
>Percy shook his head. "Trust me on this, you do <em>not <em>want to know."

I opened my eyes and saw a large shadowy figure looming over me.

"**Beckendorf?" I asked hopefully.  
>"No, brother." My eyes refocused.<br>I was looking at a Cyclops- a m****isshapen face, ratty brown hair,**

"Wow," I said sarcastically to Percy, "I see your respect for him has improved."  
>He held his hands up in the universal sign of "it's not <em>my <em>fault" and said, "What? He kind of _does_ look like that!"

**and one big brown eye full of concern. "Tyson?"  
>My brother broke <strong>**into a toothy grin. "Yay! Your brain works!"**

I playfully shook my finger and said,"See, I'm not so sure about that. There's a reason I call him Seaweed Brain after all." He grabbed my hand and said with a a grin,"She puts up with me though."

**I wasn't so sure. My body felt weightless and cold. My voice sounded wrong. I could hear Tyson, but it was more like I was hearing vibrations inside my ****skull, not the regular sounds. I sat up, and a gossamer sheet floated away. I was on a bed made of ****silky woven kelp, in a room paneled with abalone shell.**Glowing pearls the size of basketballs floated ****around the ceiling, providing light.****

I'm pretty sure I was drooling at the architecture.  
><strong><strong><br>I was under water. Now, being the son of Poseidon and all, I was ****okay with this. I can breathe underwater just fine, and my clothes don't even get wet unless I want ****them to. But it was still a bit of a shock when a hammerhead shark drifted through the bedroom ****window, regarded me, and swam calmly out the opposite side of the room.  
>"Where-" "Daddy's <strong>**palace," Tyson said.  
>Under different circumstances, I would've been excited. I'd never visited <strong>**Poseidon's realm and I'd been dreaming about it for years. But my head hurt. My shirt was still ****speckled with burn marks from the explosion. My arm and leg wounds had healed-just being in the ****ocean did that to me, given enough time- but I still felt like I'd been trampled by a Laistrygonian ****soccer team in cleats.****

Thalia winced. "I feel for you," she told Percy.

**"How long-" "We found you last night," Tyson said, "sinking through the ******water."****

****"The _Princess Andromeda_?"  
>"Went ka-boom," Tyson confirmed.<br>"Beckendorf was on board. ****Did you find…"  
>Tyson's face darkened. "No sign of him. I am sorry, brother."<br>I stared out the ****window into deep blue water. Beckendorf was supposed to go to college in the fall. He had a ****girlfriend, lots of friends, his whole life ahead of him. He couldn't be _gone._ Maybe he'd made it off ****the ship like I had. Maybe he'd jumped over the side… and what? He couldn't have survived a ****hundred-foot fall into the water like I could. He couldn't have put enough distance between himself ****and the explosion. I knew in my gut he was dead. He'd sacrificed himself to take out the _Princess _****_Andromeda, _and I had abandoned him.****

I felt Percy stiffen and took his hand. I knew he still had leftover regret from leaving Beckendorf behind.

**I thought about my dream: the Titans discussing the explosion**

**as if it didn't matter, Nico di Angelo warning me that I would never beat Kronos without following his plan- a dangerous idea I'd been avoiding for more than a year.**

Mutters of _What plan? _and _mmm, I hope there's rolls with lunch _were heard in the clearing.  
><strong><br>****A distant blast shook the room. Green******light blazed outside, turning the whole sea as bright as noon. "What was that?" I asked.********Tyson looked ****worried. "Daddy will explain. Come, he is blowing up monsters." ******The palace might have been the** **most amazing place I'd ever seen if it hadn't been in the process of getting destroyed. We swam to ****the end of a long hallway and shot upward on a geyser. A we rose over the rooftops I caught my ****breath- well, if you can catch your breath underwater. The palace was as big as the city on Mount ****Olympus with wide courtyards, gardens, and columned pavilions. The gardens were sculpted with ****coral colonies and glowing sea plants. Twenty or thirty buildings were mad e of abalone, white but ****gleaming with rainbow colors. Fish and octopi darted in and out of the windows. The paths were ****lined with glowing pearls like Christmas lights.**

This time, I definitely new that I was drooling. Not that I was going to admit that to one.

The main courtyard was filled with warriors- mermen

**with fish tails from the waist down and a human body from the waist up, except their skin was blue, ****which I'd never known before. Some were tending the wounded. Some were sharpening spears and ****swords. One passed us, swimming in a hurry. His eyes were bright green, like that stuff they put in ****glo-sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in _The Little Mermaid._**

"Yeah, I would've of noticed that kind of thing," Rachel mused. "What?" she asked, noticing our looks. "I used to love watching _The Little __Mermaid _when I was little! I used to think I was Ariel's sister because I had red hair." At this comment, a bunch of us started laughing. Rachel glared at us and folded her arms. "I was 6 ok!" With a straight face I managed to say,"When i was 6, I was busy dividing and factoring polynomials." "Shut up guys," she grumbled and started to read again.

**Outside the main courtyard stood large fortifications- towers, walls, and antisiege weapons- but most ****of these had been smashed to ruins. Others were blazing with a strange green light that I knew well- ****Greek fire, which can burn even underwater. Beyond this, the sea floor stretched into gloom. I could ****see battles raging- flashes of energy, explosions, the glint of armies crashing. A regular human ****would've found it too dark to see. Heck, a regular human would've been crushed by the pressure and ****frozen by the cold. Even my heat sensitive eyes couldn't make out exactly what was going on. At the ****edge of the palace complex, a temple with a red coral roof exploded, sending fire and debris ****streaming in slow motion across the farthest gardens. Out of the darkness above, an enormous form ****appeared- a squid larger than any skyscraper. It was surrounded by a glittering cloud of dust- at least ****I thought it was dust, until I realized it was a swarm of mermen trying to attack the monster. The ****squid descended on the palace and swatted its tentacles, smashing a whole column of warriors. Then ****a brilliant arc of blue light shot from the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings. The light hit the giant ****squid, and the monster dissolved like food coloring in water.****"Daddy," Tyson said, pointing to where ****the light had come from.  
><strong>**"_He _did that?"**

I scoffed. "No Percy, Tyson just said ,'Daddy' because he felt like it."

I suddenly felt more hopeful. My dad had unbelievable

**powers. He was the god of the sea. He could deal with this attack, right? Maybe he'd let me help. ****"****Have you been in the fight?" I asked Tyson in awe.  
>"Like, bashing heads with your cyclops strength <strong>**and stuff?"  
>Tyson pouted, and immediately I knew I had asked a bad question.<br>"I have been… fixing ****weapons," he mumbled. "Come. Let's go find Daddy."  
><strong>**I know this might sound weird to people with, ****like, regular parents, but I'd only seen my dad four or five times in my life, and never for more than a few minutes.**

Rachel muttered,"I have regular parents. But I don't see them for more than a few moments either. Why do you think they sent me to boarding school?"  
>We all looked at her sympathetically.<p>

**Still, I thought I ****would recognize Poseidon on sight. I was wrong. The roof of the temple was a big open deck that had ****been set up as a command center. A mosaic on the floor showed an exact map of the palace grounds ****and the surrounding ocean, but the mosaic moved. Colored stone tiles representing different armies ****and sea monsters shifted around as the forces changed position. Buildings that collapsed in real life ****also collapsed in the picture. Standing around the mosaic, grimly studying the battle, was a strange ****assortment of warriors, but none of them looked like my dad. I was searching for a bug guy with a ****good tan and a black beard, wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. There was nobody like ****that. One guy was a merman with two fish tails instead of one. His skin was green; his armor was ****studded with pearls. His black hair was tied in a ponytail, and he looked young- though it's hard to ****tell with non-humans. They could be a thousand years old or three. Standing next to him was an old ****man with a bushy white beard and gray hair. His battle armor seemed to way him down. He had ****green eyes and smile wrinkles around his eyes, but he wasn't smiling now. He was studying the map ****and leaning on a large metal staff. To his right stood a beautiful woman in green armor with flowing ****black hair and strange little horns like crab claws. And there was a dolphin-just regular dolphin, but it ****was staring at the map intently.**

**"Delphin," the old man said. "Send Palaemon and his legion of ****sharks to the western front. We have to neutralize those leviathans."  
>The dolphin spoke in a <strong>**chattering voice, but I could understand it in my mind: _Yes, lord!  
><em>It sped away. I looked in dismay at ****Tyson, then back at the old man. It didn't seem possible, but…  
>"Dad?" I asked. The old man looked <strong>**up. I recognized the twinkle in his eyes, but his face… he looked like he'd aged forty years.  
>"Hello, <strong>**Percy."  
>"What- happened to you?"<strong>

Subtle, eh?

**Tyson nudged me. He was shaking his head so hard I was afraid it ****might fall off, but Poseidon didn't look offended.**

**"It's all right Tyson," he said. "Percy, excuse my ****appearance. The war has been hard on me."  
>"But you're immortal," I said quietly. "You can look… <strong>**anyway you want."  
>"I reflect the state of my realm," he said. "And right now that state is quite grim. <strong>**Percy, I should introduce you- I'm afraid you just missed my lieutenant Delphin, God of the Dolphins. ****This is my, er, wife, Amphitrite. My dear-"**

"Ooohh... wifey... she didn't like you, huh?" I asked Percy.

The lady in green armor stared at me coldly, then crossed

**her arms and said, "Excuse me, my lord. I am needed in battle."  
>She swam away. I felt pretty <strong>**awkward, but I guess I couldn't blame her. I'd never thought about it much, but my dad had an ****immortal wife. All his romances with mortals, including with my mom… well, Amphitrite probably ****didn't like that much. Poseidon cleared his throat.  
>"Yes, well… and this is my son Triton. Er, my <em>other <em>****son."  
>"Your son and heir," the green dude corrected.<strong>

"What an arrogant buttface," Rachel declared.

His double fish tails swished back and forth. He

**smiled at me, but there was no friendliness in his eyes.  
>"Hello, Perseus Jackson. Come to help at <strong>**last?"**

"Obnoxious butthole," I said, and Rachel gave me a high-five.

**He acted like I was late or lazy. If you can blush underwater, I probably did.**  
><strong>"Tell me what to <strong>**do," I said. ****Triton smiled like that was a cute suggestion- like I was a slightly amusing dog that had ****barked for him or something. He turned to Poseidon.****"I will see to the front line, Father. Don't ****worry. _I _will not fail."**

Clarrisse growled. "_Fail?_ What d'you mean _fail?  
><em>We saved the freaking world!  
>Not to mention Olympus!<br>What the Hades did you do?  
>Boast and just be an arrogant butthole in general?<br>We all looked at her, stunned.  
>Percy was the first to come out of his stupor.<br>"Aww Clarisse! I didn't know you cared!"  
>She scowled. "Shut it, Jackson."<br>And... she's back.

**He nodded politely to Tyson. How come I didn't get that much respect? Then** **he shot off into the water. Poseidon sighed. He raised his staff, and it changed into his regular ****weapon- a huge three-pointed trident. The tips glowed with blue light, and the water around it boiled ****with energy.  
>"I'm sorry about that," he told me.<br>A huge sea serpent appeared from above us and ****spiraled down toward the roof. It was bright orange with a fanged mouth big enough to swallow a ****gymnasium. Hardly looking up, Poseidon pointed his trident at the beast and zapped it with blue ****energy. _Ka-boom! _The monster burst into a million goldfish, which all swam off in terror.  
>"My family <strong>**is anxious," Poseidon continued as if nothing had happened. "THE battle against Oceanus is going ****poorly."  
>HE pointed to the edge of the mosaic. With the butt of his trident he tapped the image of a <strong>**merman larger that the rest, with horns of a bull. He appeared to be riding a chariot pulled by****crawfish, and instead of a sword he wielded a live serpent.  
>"Oceanus," I said, trying to remember.<strong>

"You remembered?" I asked him happily.

"Always the tone of surprise," he grumbled. (A/n who got the harry potter DH reference? :)  
><strong><br>****"****The Titan of the sea?" Poseidon nodded.  
>"He was neutral in the first war of gods and Titans. But <strong>**Kronos has convinced him to fight. This is… well, it's not a good sign. Oceanus would not commit unless he could pick the winning side."**

"Well then," I said holding my head high, "Oceanus is obviously not very good at calculating probability."

**"He looks stupid," I said, trying to sound upbeat. "I mean, who fights with a snake?"**

"He does apperently," said Nico, then he started to crack up.  
>"It was a rhetorical question," Percy shot back.<p>

**"Daddy will tie it in knots," Tyson said firmly.**  
><strong>Pisseidon smiled, but he still looked weary.<strong>  
><strong>"I appreciate your faith. We have been at war for almost a year now. My powers are taxed. And still he finds new forces to throw at me-sea monsters so ancient I had forgotten about them."<strong>  
><strong>I heard an explosion in the distance. About half a mile away, a mountain of coral disintegrated under the weight of two giant creatures. I could dimly make out their shapes. One was a lobster. The other was a giant humanoid like a Cyclops, but he was surrounded by a flurry of limbs. At first I thought he was surrounded by a flurry of limbs. At first I thought he was wearing a bunch of giant octopi. Then I realized they were his actual arms- a hundred flailing, fighting arms.<br>****"Briares!" I said.**

**I was happy to see him, but he looked like he was fighting for his life. He was the last of his kind- a Hundred-handed One, a cousin of the Cyclopes. We'd saved him from Kronos's prison last summer, and I knew he'd come to help Poseidon, but I hadn't heard of him since.  
>"He fights well," Poseidon said. "I wish we had a whole army like him, but he is the only one."<br>I watc****hed as Briares bellowed in rage and picked the lobster, which thrashed and snapped its pincers. He threw it off the coral mountain, and the lobster disappeared into the darkness.**

"Aww," said Travis disapointedly, "We totally could have had a lobster dinner."

**Briares swam after it, his hundred arms spinning like the blades of a motor boat.**  
><strong>"Percy, we may not have much time," my dad said. "Tell me of your mission. Did you see Kronos?"<strong>  
><strong>I told him everything, though my voice choked up when I explained about Beckendorf. I looked down at the courtyards below and saw hundreds of wounded mermen lying on makeshift cots. I saw rows of coral mounds that must've been hastily made graves. I realized Beckendorf wasn't the first death. He was only one of hundreds, maybe thousands. I'd never felt so angry and helpless. Poseidon stroked his beard.<strong>  
><strong>"Percy, beckendorf chose a heroic death. You bear no blame for that. Kronos's army will be in disarray. Many were destroyed."<strong>  
><strong>"But we didn't kill him, did we?"<strong>  
><strong>As I said it, I knew it was a naïve hope.<strong>

"Ahh ha!" Clarisse shouted in triumph.  
>"So you <em>do <em>agree with me!"

**We might blow up his ship and disintegrate his monsters, but a Titan lord wouldn't be so easy to kill."No," Poseidon admitted. "But you've bought our side a little time."**  
><strong>"There were demigods on that ship," I said, thinking of the kid I'd seen in the stairwell.<strong>  
><strong>Somehow I'd allowed myself to concentrate on the monsters and Kronos. I'd convinced myself that destroying their ship was all right because they were evil, they were sailing to attack my city, and besides, they weren't permanently killed. Monsters just vaporized and reformed eventually. But demigods… Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder.<strong>  
><strong>"Percy there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship, and they chose to battle for Kronos. Perhaps some heeded your warning and escaped. If they did not… they chose their path."<strong>  
><strong>"They were brainwashed. Now they're dead and Kronos is alive. That's supposed to make me feel better?"<strong>

"Well... no," I admitted, "But I guess he's trying to tell you that they chose their own way. It's not your fault."

**I glared at the mosaic- little tile explosions destroying tile monsters. It seemed so easy when it was just a picture. Tyson put his arm around me. If anybody else had tried that, I would've pushed them away, but Tyson was too big and stubborn.**

"Would you've pushed me away?" I asked him innocently.  
>"Ah... er... um... well..." he stuttered.<br>"Well?" I asked.  
>"Tch... no...of course not... no, no... why would I? Is this a test?" he asked nervously.<br>I laughed and replied,"I just teasing seaweed brain, calm down."  
>"Well," said Thalia briskly, "If your done with this little love fest, let's read."<strong><strong>

**He hugged me whether I wanted it or not.**  
><strong>"Not your fault brother. Kronos does not explode good. Next time we will use a big stick."<strong>  
><strong>"Percy," my father said. "Beckendorf's death was not in vain. You have scattered the invasion force. New York will be safe for a time, which frees the other Olympians to deal with the bigger threat."<strong>  
><strong>"The bigger threat?"<strong> **I thought about what the golden Titan had said in my dream: _The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed. _****"Ask Chiron when you return to camp." "Return to camp? But you're in trouble here. I want to help!" "You can't Percy. Your job is elsewhere." I couldn't believe I was hearing this. I looked at Tyson for backup. My brother chewed his lip. "Daddy… Percy can fight with a sword. He is good." "I know that," said Poseidon gently. "Dad, I can help," I said. "You know I can. You're**** not going to hold out here much longer.**

"Was that supposed to install confidence in him, or what? Because I know it would definitely not for me." Grover said.  
>"I think that was some of my trademark Seaweed Brainess coming out of me," said Percy said thoughtfully."<strong><strong>

**A fireball launched into the sky from behind the enemy lines. I thought Poseidon would deflect it or something, but it landed on the outer corner of the yard and exploded, sending mermen tumbling through the water. Poseidon winced as if as if he'd just been stabbed. "Return to camp," he insisted. "tell Chiron it's time." "For what?" "You must hear the prophecy. The ****entire ****prophecy." I didn't need to ask him which prophecy. I'd been hearing about the "Great Prophecy" for years, but nobody would tell me the whole thing.**

"For good reason," I muttered. ****

**All I knew was that I was supposed to make a decision that would decide the fate of the world- but no pressure. "What if ****this ****is the decision?" I said. "Staying here to fight, or leaving? What if I leave and you…" I couldn't say ****die. ****Gods weren't supposed to die, but I'd seen it happen. Even if they didn't die, they could be reduced to nearly nothing, exiled, imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus like Kronos had been. "Percy, you must go," Poseidon insisted. "I don't know what your final decision will be, but your fight lies in the world above. If nothing else, you must warn your friends at camp. Kronos knew your plans. You have spy. We will hold here. We have no choice." Tyson gripped my hand desperately. "I will miss you brother!" Watching us, our father seemed to age another ten years. "Tyson, you have work to do as well, my son. They need you in the armory." Tyson outed some more. "I will go," he sniffled. He hugged me so hard he almost cracked my ribs.**

Percy winced and rubbed his side. ****

**"Percy, be careful! Do not let monsters kill you dead!" I tried to nod confidently, but it was to much for the big guy. he sobbed and swam away toward the armory, where his cousins were fixing spears and swords. "You should let him fight," I told my father. "he hates being stuck in the armory. Can't you tell?" Poseidon shook his head. "It is bad enough that I must send you into danger. Tyson is to young. I must protect him." "****you**** should trust him," I said. "Not try to protect him." Poseidon's eyes flared. I thought i'd gone too far, but then I saw him look** **down at the mosaic and his shoulders sagged. On the tiles, the mermaid guy in the crawfish chariot was coming closer to the palace. "Oceanus approaches," my father said. "I must meet him in battle." I'd never been scared for a god before, but I couldn't see how my dad could face this Titan and win. "i will hold," Poseidon promised. "I will not give up my domain. Just tell me, Percy, do you still have the birthday gift I gave you last summer?" I nodded and pulled out my camp necklace. It had a bead for every summer i'd been at Camp-Half Blood, but since last year I'd also kept a sand dollar on the cord. My father had given it to me for my for my fifteenth birthday. He'd told me I would know when to "spend it," but so far I hadn't figured out what he meant. All I knew was that it didn't fit the vending machines at school cafeteria.**

"Well," I said thoughtfully, "If you cut it at the right angles to slip in, and-"  
>"Annabeth," Thalia interrupted. "We don't need a geometry lesson right now."<br>"Fine," I grumbled. If they didn't want to stimulate their brain, fine by me.****

**"The time is coming," he promised. "With luck, I will see you for your birthday next week, and we will have a proper celebration." He smiled, and for a moment I saw the old light in his eyes. then the entire sea grew dark in front of us, like an inky storm was rolling in. Thunder crackled, which should've been impossible underwater. A huge icy presence was approaching , i sensed a wave of fear roll through the armies below us. "I must assume my true godly form," Poseidon said. "Go- and good luck, my son." I wanted to encourage him, t hug him or something, but knew better than stick a****round. When a god assumes his true form, the power is so great that any mortal looking at him will disintegrate. "Good-bye, Father," I managed. Then I turned away. I willed the ocean currents to aid me. Water swirled around me, and I shot toward the surface at speed that would caused any normal human to pop like a balloon. When I looked back, all I could see were flashes of green and blue as my father fought the Titan, and the sea itself was torn apart by the tow armies.**

**As we finished reading the chapter, we heard the lunch bell.  
>Grover sniffed the air. "I hope there's enchiladas!"<br>He's got a total one-track mind. **

A/n I made up the lunch part. In the books, I never really heard Rick mention lunch. So...guys... how's it going? *chuckles nervously* i know i haven't updated in over 2 months. I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so hundreds of times sorry! I promise i didn't mean to be so late. Sadly, fan fiction is my last priority on my list right now. i PROMISE I will never ever never ever abandon this story though. I LOVE LOVE LOVE PJO! it is my second favorite book series, right behind Harry Potter. But percabeth is my favorite couple that i ship. PERCABETH RULES BABY! Hence my pen name. So anyway, even though updates may not come as frequently as you want 'em to, they'll come. Trust me. so yeah,I hope you guys continue to follow my story, and remember, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! That helps me get my butt into gear. I cannot stress that enough. If you're a little miffed cause the story looks a little wierd, ya know, i forget to skip the lines and stuff and it looks cramped, yeah i'm still working out the kinks. !I'm concentrating on writing the chapter first, because that is what takes the longest. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it. Again, really sorry for the lateness! Percabethgirl out :D

P.S. This is so random, but i was listening to youtube music while is was doing this, and I was listening to connie Talbot's someone like you by adele cover, it was soo good. This was really random XD


	4. I Get A Sneak Peek At My Death

A/n Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Percy's POV

"Who's reading next?" I asked. Rachel looked next to her, where Connor and Travis eyed the book with a wild glint in their eyes.

Luckily, she realized what was about to happen, and quickly scrambled out of the way. Connor and Travis launched themselves into the air, shoving and wrestling, trying to grab the book first.

Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, Chris, Rachel, Nico and I were rolling on the ground in laughter. Clarisse was shouting out wrestling moves to them. Grass was flying in the air, a clump of wild flowers were trampled.

Connor came out victorious, and Travis looked like he had a permanent scowl on his face.

"**I Get a Sneak Peek at my Death," **Connor read gleefully.

**If you want to be popular at Camp Half-Blood, don't come back from a mission with bad news.**

**"**Yeah, learn from my mistakes," I muttered.

**Word of my arrival spread as soon as I walked out of the ocean. Our beach is on the North Shore of Long Island, and it's enchant Luckily ed so most people can't even see it. People don't just **_**appear**_**on the beach unless they're demigods or gods or really, really lost pizza delivery guys. (It's happened-but that's another story.)**

"Man, that was hilarious," said Travis, clearly getting over the fact that his brother won.

"He was so confused," Annabeth recalled.

**Anyway, that afternoon the lookout on duty was Connor Stoll from the Hermes cabin. When he spotted me, he got so excited he fell out of his tree.**

"No," Connor protested, "I tried to impressively jump down, but it didn't work."

"Yep," said Chris,"keep telling yourself that."

**Then he blew the conch horn to signal the camp and ran to greet me.**

**Connor had a crooked smile that matched his crooked sense of humor.**

**He's a pretty nice guy, but you should always keep one hand on your wallet when he's around, and do not, under any circumstances, give him access to shaving cream unless you want to find your sleeping bag full of it.**

Grover grumbled and eyed the two brothers wearily. They grinned at him.

**He's got curly brown hair and is a little shorter than his brother, Travis, which is the only way I can tell them apart.**

"I'm not short," Connor said, "I'm fun sized."

Travis snorted, "That's what they all say."

**They are both so unlike my old enemy Luke it's hard to believe they're all sons of Hermes.**

**"Percy!" he yelled. "What happened? Where's Beckendorf?"**

All smiles disappeared, quick as a flash.

**Then he saw my expression, and his smile melted. "Oh, no. Poor Silena. Holy Zeus, when she finds out . . ."**

**Together we climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred yards away, people were already streaming toward us, smiling and excited. **_**Percy's back,**_** they were probably thinking. **_**He's saved the day! Maybe he brought souvenirs!**_

**I stopped at the dining pavilion and waited for them. No sense rushing down there to tell them what a loser I was.**

"You are way too self-critical." Annabeth told me.

**I gazed across the valley and tried to remember how Camp Half-Blood looked the first time I ever saw it. That seemed like a bajillion years ago.**

**From the dining pavilion, you could see pretty much everything. Hills ringed the valley. On the tallest, Half-Blood Hill, Thalia's pine tree stood with the Golden Fleece hanging from its branches, magically protecting the camp from its enemies.**

"Thanks a lot, _dad,_" Thalia said grumpily.

**The guard dragon Peleus was so big now I could see him from here-curled around the tree trunk, lending up smoke signals as he snored.**

**To my right spread the woods. To my left, the canoe lake glittered and the climbing wall glowed from the lava pouring down its side. Twelve cabins-one for each Olympian god-made a horseshoe pattern around the commons area. Farther south were the strawberry fields, the armory, and the four-story Big House with its sky blue paint job and its bronze eagle weather vane. **

Rachel sighed. "I love camp. It's so peaceful. Other than the fact that there are some pretty lethal teens who could probably decapitate me in a couple of seconds. But other than that, it's great."

**In some ways, the camp hadn't changed. But you couldn't see the war by looking at the buildings or the fields. You could see it in the faces of the demigods and satyrs and naiads coming up the hill.**

**There weren't as many at camp as four summers ago. Some had left and never come back. Some had died fighting. Others-we tried not to talk about them-had gone over to the enemy.**

**The ones who were still here were battle-hardened and weary. There was little laughter at camp these days. Even the Hermes cabin didn't play so many pranks. It's hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.**

"Trust me, Percy, we totally would've," said Travis, clapping me on the shoulder.

"But Annabeth would've killed us," finished Connor, shuddering, clearly thinking about ways Annabeth would kill him and his brother.

**Chiron galloped into the pavilion first, which was easy for him since he's a white stallion from the waist down. His beard had grown wilder over the summer. He wore a green T-shirt that said MY OTHER CAR IS A CENTAUR and a bow slung over his back.**

**"Percy!" he said. "Thank the gods. But where . . ."**

**Annabeth ran in right behind him, and I'll admit my heart did a little relay race in my chest when I saw her.**

"Aww!" Rachel squealed. Grover grinned at me.

Connor and Travis being themselves had to start up a song. Yeah_. That _song.

"Percy and Annabeth sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Now everyone had joined and I could've have blended in with the strawberry fields. We were red. Very red.

By this time, they were belting it out. Now, we had been reading relatively quietly. You may not know this, but some of the Apollo kids have _extraordinary _hearing. It must be from listening for the dull _thunk _of an arrow hitting their mark. Anyways, this is what we heard, outside of the clearing:

"FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN COMES A BABY IN A BABY CARRIAGE!"

This place is a bottomless pit of teasing.

Thalia, thanks the gods, became serious. "That was fun and all, but let's go back to reading."

**It's not that she tried to look good. We'd been doing so many combat missions lately, she hardly brushed her curly blond hair anymore, and she didn't care what clothes she was wearing-usually the same old orange camp T-shirt and jeans, and once in a while her bronze armor. Her eyes were stormy gray. Most of the time we couldn't get through a conversation without trying to strangle each other.**

**Still, just seeing her made me feel fuzzy in the head. Last summer, before Luke had turned into Kronos and everything went sour, there had been a few times when I thought maybe . . . well, that we might get past the strangle-each-other phase.**

**"What happened?" She grabbed my arm. "Is Luke-"**

**"The ship blew up," I said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where-"**

**Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn't combed and she wasn't even wearing makeup, which wasn't like her.**

**"Where's Charlie?" she demanded, looking around like he might be hiding.**

**I glanced at Chiron helplessly.**

**The old centaur cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House-"**

**"No," she muttered. "No. **_**No."**_

**She started to cry, and the rest of us stood around, too stunned to speak. We'd already lost so many people over the summer, but this was the worst. With Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the anchor for the entire camp.**

"Must you think about this the whole time?" asked Clarisse.

"It was on my mind," I replied, shrugging.

**Finally Clarisse from the Ares cabin came forward. She put her arm around Silena. They had one of the strangest friendships ever-a daughter of the war god and a daughter of the love goddess- ****but ever since Silena had given Clarisse advice last summer about her first boyfriend, Clarisse had decided she was Silena's personal bodyguard.**

**Clarisse was dressed in her bloodred combat armor, her brown hair tucked into a bandana. She was as big and beefy as a rugby player, with a permanent scowl on her face, but she spoke gently to Silena.**

**"Come on, girl," she said. "Let's get to the Big House. I'll make you some hot chocolate."**

My stomach rumbled. Like, really loudly. There's a reason I'm the Earthshaker's son.

**Everyone turned and wandered off in twos and threes, heading back to the cabins. Nobody was excited to see me now. Nobody wanted to hear about the blown-up ship.**

**Only Annabeth and Chiron stayed behind.**

**Annabeth wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'm glad you're not dead, Seaweed Brain."**

**"Thanks," I said. "Me too."**

"Me too!" someone echoed.

**"Chiron put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure you did everything you could, Percy. Will you tell us what happened?"**

**I didn't want to go through it again, but I told them the story, including my dream about the Titans. I left out the detail about Nico. Nico had made me promise not to tell anybody about his plan until I made up my mind, and the plan was so scary I didn't mind keeping it a secret.**

**Chiron gazed down at the valley. "We must call a war council immediately, to discuss this spy, and other matters."**

**"Poseidon mentioned another threat," I said. "Something even bigger than the **_**Princess Andromeda.**_** I thought it might be that challenge the Titan had mentioned in my dream."**

**Chiron and Annabeth exchanged looks, like they knew something I didn't. I hated when they did that.**

"Sorry," apologized Annabeth.

**"We will discuss that also," Chiron promised.**

**"One more thing." I took a deep breath. "When I talked to my father, he said to tell you it's time. I need to know the full prophecy."**

**Chiron's shoulders sagged, but he didn't look surprised. "I've dreaded this day. Very well. Annabeth, we will show Percy the truth- all of **_**it.**_** Let's go to the attic."**

**I'd been to the Big House attic three times before, which was three times more than I wanted to.**

**A ladder ledup from the top of the staircase. I wondered how Chiron was going to get up there, being half horse and all, but he didn't try.**

**"You know where it is," he told Annabeth. "Bring it down, please."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Come on, Percy."**

**The sun was setting outside, so the attic was even darker and creepier than usual. Old hero trophies were slacked everywhere-dented shields, pickled heads in jars from various monsters, a pair of fuzzy dice on a bronze plaque that read: STOLEN FROM CHRYSAOR'S HONDA CIVIC, BY GUS, SON OF HERMES, 1988.**

**I picked up a curved bronze sword so badly bent it looked like the letter **_**M.**_** I could still see green stains on the metal from the magical poison that used to cover it. The tag was dated last summer. It read: **_**Scimitar of Kampê, destroyed in the Battle of the Labyrinth.**_

**"You remember Briares throwing those boulders?" I asked.**

**Annabeth gave me a grudging smile. "And Grover causing a Panic?"**

**We locked eyes. I thought of a different time last summer, under Mount St. Helens, when Annabeth thought I was going to die and she kissed me.**

Rachel and Thalia giggled.

**She cleared her throat and looked away. "Prophecy."**

**"Right." I put down the scimitar. "Prophecy."**

**We walked over to the window. On a three-legged stool sat the Oracle-a shriveled female mummy in a tie-dyed dress. Tufts of black hair clung to her skull. Glassy eyes stared out of her leathery face. Just looking at her made my skin crawl.**

**If you wanted to leave camp during the summer, it used to be you had to come up here to get a quest. This summer, that rule had been tossed. Campers left all the time on combat missions. We had no choice if we wanted to stop Kronos.**

**Still, I remembered too well the strange green mist-the spirit of the Oracle-that lived inside the mummy. She looked lifeless now, but whenever she spoke a prophecy, she moved. Sometimes fog gushed out of her mouth and created strange shapes. Once, she'd even left the attic and taken a little zombie stroll into the woods to deliver a message. I wasn't sure what she'd do for the "Great Prophecy." I half expected her to start tap dancing or something."**

"Well that was anticlimatic," said Rachel.

**But she just sat there like she was dead-which she was.**

**"I never understood this," I whispered.**

**"What?" Annabeth asked.**

**"Why it's a mummy."**

**"Percy, she didn't used to be a mummy. For thousands of years the spirit of the Oracle lived inside a beautiful maiden.**

"Rachel, your beautiful!" said Connor. "Annabeth said so, and Annabeth's never wrong."

Annabeth shrugged. "I wasn't wrong, was I?"

**The spirit would be passed on from generation to generation. Chiron told me **_**she**_** was like that fifty years ago." Annabeth pointed at the mummy. "But she was the last."**

**"What happened?"**

**Annabeth started to say something, then apparently changed her mind. "Let's just do our job and get out of here."**

**I looked nervously at the Oracle's withered face. "So what now?"**

**Annabeth approached the mummy and held out her palms. "O Oracle, the time is at hand. I ask for the Great Prophecy."**

**I braced myself, but the mummy didn't move. Instead, Annabeth approached and unclasped one of its necklaces. I'd never paid too much attention to its jewelry before. I figured it was just hippie love beads and stuff. But when Annabeth turned toward me, she was holding a leather pouch-like a Native American medicine pouch on a cord braided with feathers. She opened the bag and took out a roll of parchment no bigger than her pinky.**

**"No way," I said. "You mean all these years, I've been asking about this stupid prophecy, and it's been right there around her neck?"**

**"The time wasn't right," Annabeth said. "Believe me, Percy, I read this when I was ten years old, and I still have nightmares about it."**

**"Great," I said. "Can I read it now?"**

**"Downstairs at the war council," Annabeth said. "Not in front of . . . you know."**

**I looked at the glassy eyes of the Oracle, and I decided not to argue. We headed downstairs to join the others. I didn't know it then, but it would be the last time I ever visited the attic.**

Nico looked bewildered. "What? No more quests?"

Rachel sighed. "No you doofus, I'm here."

"Oh. Oh yeah. I forgot."

"Clearly."

**The senior counselors had gathered around the Ping-Pong table. Don't ask me why, but the rec room had become the camp's informal headquarters for war councils. When Annabeth, Chiron, and I came in, though, it looked more like a shouting match.**

Connor and Travis decided to have a shouting match.

"Ha."

"Haaa!"

"HA!"

"HAAAA!"

"HAAAAAAAAA!"

"HA-"

"MY EARS ARE BLEEDING! SHUT UP ALREADY!" Thalia had a set of lungs on her.

"Thalia WON!" Connor and Travis shouted, hugging her.

"Oh, be quiet," she said, but she smiled anyways.

**Clarisse was still in full battle gear. Her electric spear was strapped to her back. (Actually, her **_**second**_** electric spear, since I'd broken the first one. She called the spear "Maimer." Behind her back, everybody else called it "Lamer.")**

"What?" asked Clarisse. "Who started this?"

The brothers pointed at each other.

"It was him!"

"No, him!"

**She had her boar-shaped helmet under one arm and a knife at her belt.**

**She was in the midst of yelling at Michael Yew, the new head counselor for Apollo, which looked kind of funny since Clarisse was a foot taller. Michael had taken over the Apollo cabin after Lee Fletcher died in battle last summer. Michael stood four feet six, with another two feet of attitude.**

**He reminded me of a ferret, with a pointy nose and scrunched-up features-either because he scowled so much or because he spent too much time looking down the shaft of an arrow.**

"I think it's the second one," Annabeth said decisively.

"Nah, first," argued Thalia.

"Second."

"First."

"Second."

"It's both." I said shortly.

"Fine. Be that way," they replied.

**"It's **_**our**_** loot!" he yelled, standing on his tiptoes so he could get in Clarisse's face. "If you don't like it, you can kiss my quiver!"**

"Ew," said Grover. "Do you know where that's been?"

We shook our heads.

"Exactly."

**Around the table, people were trying not to laugh- the Stoll brothers, ****Pollux from the Dionysus cabin, Katie Gardner from Demeter. Even Jake Mason, the hastily appointed new counselor from Hephaestus, managed a faint smile. Only Silena Beauregard didn't pay any attention. She sat beside Clarisse and stared vacantly at the Ping-Pong net. Her eyes were red and puffy. A cup of hot chocolate sat untouched in front of her. It seemed unfair that she had to be here. I couldn't believe Clarisse and Michael standing over her, arguing about something as stupid as loot, when she'd just lost Beckendorf.**

**"STOP IT!" I yelled. "What are you guys doing?"**

**Clarisse glowered at me. "Tell Michael not to be a selfish jerk."**

**"Oh, that's perfect, coming from you," Michael said.**

**"The only reason I'm here is to support Silena!" Clarisse shouted. "Otherwise I'd be back in my cabin."**

**"What are you talking about?" I demanded.**

**Pollux cleared his throat. "Clarisse has refused to speak to any of us, until her, um, issue is resolved. She hasn't spoken for three days."**

**"It's been wonderful," Travis Stoll said wistfully.**

She glared at him and he cowered.

**"What issue?" I asked.**

**Clarisse turned to Chiron. "You're in charge, right? Does my cabin get what we want or not?"**

**Chiron shuffled his hooves. "My dear, as I've already explained, Michael is correct. Apollo's cabin has the best claim. Besides, we have more important matters-"**

**"Sure," Clarisse snapped. "Always more important matters than what Ares needs. We're just supposed to show up and light when you need us, and not complain!"**

**"That would be nice," Connor Stoll muttered.**

**Clarisse gripped her knife. "Maybe I should ask Mr. D-"**

**"As you know," Chiron interrupted, his tone slightly angry now, "our director, Dionysus, is busy with the war. He can't be bothered with this."**

**"I see," Clarisse said. "And the senior counselors? Are **_**any**_** of you going to side with me?"**

**Nobody was smiling now. None of them met Clarisse's eyes.**

**"Fine." Clarisse turned to Silena. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get into this when you've just lost . . . Anyway, I apologize. To **_**you.**_** Nobody else."**

**Silena didn't seem to register her words.**

**Clarisse threw her knife on the Ping-Pong table. "All of you can fight this war without Ares. Until I get satisfaction, no one in my cabin is lifting a finger to help. Have fun dying."**

**The counselors were all too stunned to say anything as ****Clarisse stormed out of the room. **

"Was that really the best time?" Thalia assked.

"I admit it wasn't the best time. But Ares almost always gets the least respect."

"But it's partly your dad's fault," I protested. "He's a big butt."

I glanced up at the sky and shouted "Sorry! But it's true!"

**Finally Michael Yew said, "Good riddance."**

**"Are you kidding?" Katie Gardner protested. "This is a disaster!"**

**"She can't be serious," Travis said. "Can she?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Her pride has been wounded. She'll calm down eventually." But he didn't sound convinced.**

**I wanted to ask what the heck Clarisse was so mad about, but I looked at Annabeth and she mouthed the words **_**I'll tell you later.**_

**"Now," Chiron continued, "if you please, counselors. Percy has brought something I think you should hear. Percy-the Great Prophecy."**

**Annabeth handed me the parchment. It felt dry and old, and my fingers fumbled with the string. I uncurled the paper, trying not to rip it, and began to read:**

_**"A half-blood of the eldest dogs . . ."** _

Everyone snickered.

**"Er, Percy?" Annabeth interrupted. "That's **_**gods.**_** Not **_**dogs**_**."**

**"Oh, right," I said. Being dyslexic is one mark of a demigod, but sometimes I really hate it. The more nervous I am, the worse my reading gets. **_**"A half~blood of the eldest gods . . . shall reach sixteen against all odds . . ."**_

**I hesitated, staring at the next lines. A cold feeling started in my fingers as if the paper was freezing.**

_**"And see the world in endless sleep,**_

_**The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."**_

**Suddenly Riptide seemed heavier in my pocket. A cursed blade? Chiron once told me Riptide had brought many people sorrow. Was it possible my own sword could get me killed?**

"You didn't think of Kronos' scythe?" Nico asked. I shook my head.

**And how could the world fall into endless sleep, unless that meant death?**

**"Percy," Chiron urged. "Read the rest."**

**My mouth felt like it was full of sand, but I spoke the last two lines.**

_**"A single choice shall. . . shall end his days.**_

_**Olympus **__**to per**_**-**_**pursue**_**-"**

_**"Preserve,"**_** Annabeth said gently. "It means **_**to save.**_**"**

**"I know what it means," I grumbled.**

"Sorry," said Annabeth. I shrugged. I knew she couldn't help it. It was in her blood.

_**"Olympus to preserve or raze."**_

**The room was silent. Finally Connor Stoll said, "Raise is good, isn't it?"**

**"Not **_**raise,**_**"Silena said. Her voice was hollow, but I was startled to hear her speak at all. "R-a-z-e means **_**destroy.**_**"**

**"Obliterate," Annabeth said. "Annihilate. Turn to rubble."**

**"Got it." My heart felt like lead. "Thanks."**

**Everybody was looking at me-with concern, or pity, or maybe a little fear.**

**Chiron closed his eyes as if he were saying a prayer. In horse form, his head almost brushed the lights in the rec room. "You see now, Percy, why we thought it best not to tell you the whole prophecy. You've had enough on your shoulders-"**

**"Without realizing I was going to die in the end anyway?" I said. "Yeah, I get it."**

**Chiron gazed at me sadly. The guy was three thousand years old. He'd seen hundreds of heroes die. He might not like it, but he was used to it. He probably knew better than to try to reassure me.**

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die."**

**"Sure," I said. **_**"A single choice shall end his days.**_** That has tons of meanings, right?"**

**"Maybe we can stop it," Jake Mason offered. **_**"The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap.**_** Maybe we could find this cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos's scythe, right?"**

**I hadn't thought about that, but it didn't matter if the cursed blade was Riptide or Kronos's scythe. Either way, I doubted we could stop the prophecy. A blade was supposed to reap my soul. As a general rule, I preferred not to have my soul reaped.**

"I think that goes for everyone."

**"Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. "He needs time-"**

**"No." I folded up the prophecy and shoved it into my pocket. I felt defiant and angry, though I wasn't sure who I was angry with. "I don't need time. If I die, I die. I can't worry about that, right?"**

**Annabeth's hands were shaking a little. She wouldn't meet my eyes.**

**"Let's move on," I said. "We've got other problems. We've got a spy."**

**Michael Yew scowled. "A spy?"**

"See!" said Thalia. "It even says he scowled. Therefore it is the first one.

**I told them what had happened on the **_**Princess Andromeda**_**-how Kronos had known we were coming, how he'd shown me the silver scythe pendant he'd used to communicate with someone at camp.**

**Silena started to cry again, and Annabeth put an arm around her shoulders.**

I frowned. I should've have seen that something was wrong with that picture, but I thought she was crying because of Beckendorf.

**"Well," Connor Stoll said uncomfortably, "we've suspected there might a spy for years, right? Somebody kept passing information to Luke-like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knew him well."**

**Maybe subconsciously, he glanced at Annabeth. She'd known Luke better than anyone, of course, but Connor looked away quickly.**

**"Um, I mean, it could be anybody."**

**"Yes." Katie Gardner frowned at the Stoll brothers. She'd disliked them ever since they'd decorated the grass roof of the Demeter cabin with chocolate Easter bunnies.**

**"Like one of Luke's siblings."**

"Man, Katie is loud!" said Travis, recalling this moment.

**Travis and Connor both started arguing with her.**

**"Stop!" Silena banged the table so hard her hot chocolate spilled. "Charlie's dead and . . . and you're all arguing like little kids!" She put her head down and began to sob.**

**Hot chocolate trickled off the Ping-Pong table. Everybody looked ashamed.**

**"She's right," Pollux said at last. "Accusing each other doesn't help. We need to keep our eyes open for a silver necklace with a scythe charm. If Kronos had one, the spy probably does too."**

**Michael Yew grunted. "We need to find this spy before we plan our next operation. Blowing up the **_**Princess Andromeda**_** won't stop Kronos forever."**

**"No indeed," Chiron said. "In fact his next assault is already on the way."**

**I scowled. "You mean the 'bigger threat' Poseidon mentioned?"**

**He and Annabeth looked at each other like, **_**It's time.**_** Did I mention I hate it when they do that?**

"Yes" answered Nico.

**"Percy," Chiron said, "we didn't want to tell you until you returned to camp. You needed a break with your . . . mortal friends."**

**Annabeth blushed. It dawned on me that she knew I'd been hanging out with Rachel, and I felt guilty. Then I felt angry that I felt guilty. I was allowed to have friends outside camp, right? It wasn't like . . .**

**"Tell me what's happened," I said.**

**Chiron picked up a bronze goblet from the snack table. He tossed water onto the hot plate where we usually melted nacho cheese. Steam billowed up, making a rainbow in the fluorescent lights. Chiron fished a golden drachma out of his pouch, tossed it through the mist, and muttered, "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us the threat."**

**The mist shimmered. I saw the familiar image of a smoldering volcano-Mount St. Helens. As I watched, the side of the mountain exploded. Fire, ash, and lava rolled out. A newscaster's voice was saying **_**"**_**-**_**even larger than last year's eruption, and geologists warn that the mountain may not be done."**_

**I knew all about last year's eruption. I'd caused it. But this explosion was much worse. The mountain tore itself apart, collapsing inward, and an enormous form rose out of the smoke and lava like it was emerging from a manhole. I hoped the Mist would keep the humans from seeing it clearly, because what I saw would've caused panic and riots across the entire United States.**

**The giant was bigger than anything I'd ever encountered. Even my demigod eyes couldn't make out its exact form through the ash and fire, ****but it was vaguely humanoid and so huge it could've used the Chrysler Building as a baseball bat. The mountain shook with a horrible rumbling, as if the monster were laughing.**

**"It's him," I said. "Typhon."**

**I was seriously hoping Chiron would say something good, like **_**No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us!**_

**But no such luck. He simply nodded. "The most horrible monster of all, the biggest single threat the gods ever faced. He has been freed from under the mountain at last. But this scene is from two days ago. **_**Here**_** is what is happening today."**

**Chiron waved his hand and the image changed. I saw a bank of storm clouds rolling across the Midwest plains. Lightning flickered. Lines of tornadoes destroyed everything in their path-ripping up houses and trailers, tossing cars around like Matchbox toys.**

Not a good picture.

_**"Monumental floods,"**_** an announcer was saying. **_**"Five states declared disaster areas as the freak storm system sweeps east, continuing its path of destruction."**_** The cameras zoomed in on a column of storm bearing down on some Midwest city. I couldn't tell which one. Inside the storm I could see the giant-just small glimpses of his true form: a smoky arm, a dark clawed hand the size of a city block. His angry roar rolled across the plains like a nuclear blast. Other smaller forms darted through the clouds, circling the monster. I saw flashes of light, and I realized the giant was trying to swat them. I squinted and thought I saw a golden chariot flying into the blackness. Then some ****kind of huge bird-a monstrous owl-dived in to attack the giant.**

"Mom!" Annabeth said in recognition.

**"Are those . . . the gods?" I said.**

**"Yes, Percy," Chiron said. "They have been fighting him for days now, trying to slow him down. But Typhon is marching forward-toward New York. Toward Olympus."**

**I let that sink in. "How long until he gets here?"**

**"Unless the gods can stop him? Perhaps five days. Most of the Olympians are there . . . except your father, who has a war of his own to fight."**

**"But then who's guarding Olympus?"**

"We will," said Nico gleefully.

"Stop talking to the book." ordered Thalia.

**Connor Stoll shook his head. "If Typhon gets to New York, it won't matter who's guarding Olympus."**

**I thought about Kronos's words on the ship: **_**I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus.**_

**Was this what he was talking about: an attack by Typhon? It was sure terrifying enough. But Kronos was always fooling us, misdirecting our attention. This seemed too obvious for him. And in my dream, the golden Titan had talked about several more challenges to come, as if Typhon were only the first.**

**"It's a trick," I said. "We have to warn the gods. Something else is going to happen."**

**Chiron looked at me gravely. "Something worse than Typhon? I hope not."**

**"We have to defend Olympus," I insisted. "Kronos has another attack planned."**

**"He did," Travis Stoll reminded me. "But you sunk his ship."**

**Everyone was looking at me. They wanted some good news. They wanted to believe that at least I'd given them a little bit of hope.**

**I glanced at Annabeth. I could tell we were thinking the same thing: What if the **_**Princess Andromeda**_** was a ploy? What if Kronos **_**let**_** us blow up that ship so we'd lower our guard?**

**But I wasn't going to say that in front of Silena. Her boyfriend had sacrificed himself for that mission.**

**"Maybe you're right," I said, though I didn't believe it.**

"It was kind of obvious," Grover put in.

**I tried to imagine how things could get much worse. The gods were in the Midwest fighting a huge monster that had almost defeated them once before. Poseidon was under siege and losing a war against the sea Titan Oceanus. Kronos was still out there somewhere. Olympus was virtually undefended. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood were on our own with a spy in our midst.**

**Oh, and according to the ancient prophecy, I was going to die when I turned sixteen-which happened to be in five days, the exact same time Typhon was supposed to hit New York. Almost forgot that.**

**"Well," Chiron said, "I think that's enough for one night."**

**He waved his hand and the steam dissipated. The stormy battle of Typhon and the gods disappeared.**

**"That's an understatement," I muttered.**

**And the war council adjourned.**

"That's the end," Connor announced, and handed it to Travis took it from him gratefully.

A/n: Heeey. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. I am so sorry, you guys, i haven't updated in forever. The only way you guys even got this chapter was from **jlmill9 **who let me copy and paste the bolded parts. I just filled in the comments. You must thank her, because this update would not have been here without her help. I admit it, I kind of lost interest in this story. Typing the chapters was brutal, so thank you for sticking with me. Hopefully, the next update will come sooner, but no guarantees. Thankfully, summer is almost here, which means more time to update! Review.


	5. We Burn A Metal Shroud

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.**

**Annabeth POV**

Chapter Four

WE BURN A METAL SHROUD

**"We Burn a Metal Shroud," **read Travis.

**I dreamed Rachel Elizabeth Dare was throwing darts at my picture.**

"Um, okay," commented Connor, "that's kind of a weird dream."

"You're telling me," said Rachel disbelievingly. "How did you know that?" she asked Percy.

He shrugged. "It's a demigod thing."

**She was standing in her room . . . Okay, back up. I have to explain that Rachel doesn't have a room. She has the top floor of her family's mansion, which is a renovated brownstone in Brooklyn. Her "room" is a huge loft with industrial lighting and floor-to-ceiling windows. It's about twice as big as my mom's apartment.**

Rachel, Thalia, and I all grinned. We were reminiscing about the sleepover at Rachel's "house." All I can say, is that the two local 7-Elevens probably one heck of a time trying to replenish their whole chocolate supply at two in the morning.

Meanwhile, Travis and Connor were staring into space, their eyes glazed over. "That sure beats a crowded Hermes cabin," Travis murmured.

**Some alt rock was blaring from her paint-covered Bose docking system. As far as I could tell, Rachel's only rule about music was that no two songs on her iPod could sound the same, and they all had to be strange.**

"You betcha!" chirped Rachel.

**She wore a kimono, and her hair was frizzy, like she'd been sleeping. Her bed was messed up. Sheets hung over a bunch of artist's easels. Dirty clothes and old energy bar wrappers were strewn around the floor, but when you've got a room that big, the mess doesn't look so bad. Out the windows you could see the entire nighttime skyline of Manhattan.**

**"Demigods," Rachel muttered as she threw another dart at the canvas. "And their stupid quests."**

Nico stared at her. "Saving the entire human race is stupid?"

She smiled at him sheepishly.

**Most of the darts bounced off, but a few stuck. One hung off my chin like a goatee.**

Almost everyone giggled. Percy scowled, "Guys! I thought we agreed to never talk about that again!"

Rachel looked curious, and asked, "What're you guys talking about?"

"Well..." said Clarisse, grinning mischievously at Percy. He glared at her. Needless to say, it didn't work.

"These two idiots," she said, gesturing to the Stoll brothers, "played a prank on our dear Prissy. They asked one of the girls from the Hecate cabin for an Aging spell. They mixed it in his drink during dinner, and the next morning, he had a full beard!"

"Like Dumbledore!" I added helpfully.

Rachel's giggles turned into in-and-out guffaws. Percy scowled again. Surprisingly, Travis took pity on him and began reading again.

**Rachel scooped up her remote control and shut off the music. "Come in!"**

**"What is going on?" he demanded. "It's three in the morning."**

****"Couldn't sleep," Rachel said.****

**On the painting, a dart fell off my face. Rachel hid the rest behind her back, but Mr. Dare noticed.**

**"So . . . I take it your friend isn't coming to St. Thomas?" That's what Mr. Dare called me. Never Percy. Just your friend. Or young man if he was talking to me, which he rarely did.**

**Rachel knit her eyebrows. "I don't know."**

****"We leave in the morning," her dad said. "If he hasn't made up his mind yet-"****

**"He's probably not coming," Rachel said miserably. "Happy?"**

**Mr. Dare put his hands behind his back. He paced the room with a stern expression. I imagined he did that in the boardroom of his land development company and made his employees ****nervous.**

"He does," Rachel confirmed.

**"Are**you still having bad dreams?" he asked. "Headaches?"****

Rachel threw her darts on the floor. "I should never have told you about that."

"I'm your father," he said. "I'm worried about you."

"Worried about the family's reputation," Rachel muttered.

**Her father didn't react-maybe because he'd heard that comment before, or maybe because it was true.**

"I'm sure deep down, he does care about you a lot," said Annabeth, patting her friend's back comfortingly.

"Yeah," said Rachel miserably," deep, deep, deep down."

**"We could call Dr. Arkwright," he suggested. "He helped you get through the death of your hamster."  
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**"I was six then," she said. "And no, Dad, I don't need a therapist. I just …" She shook her head helplessly.**

**"It will be good for you to get away," he decided. "You've had some unhealthy influences."**

**"Try to get some sleep," he urged. "We'll be at the beach by tomorrow night. It will be fun."**

**"Fun," Rachel repeated. "Lots of fun."**

"Is your dad a jedi, Rachel?" teased Connor.

"'These are not the droids you are looking for,'" Travis quoted.

**Her father exited the room. He left the door open behind him.**

**Rachel stared at the portrait of me. Then she walked to the easel next to it, which was covered in a sheet.**

**"I hope they're dreams," she said.**

**She uncovered the easel. On it was a hastily sketched charcoal, but Rachel was a good artist. The picture was definitely Luke as a young boy.**

**He was about nine years old, with a wide grin and no scar on his face. I had no idea how Rachel could've known what he looked like back then, but the portrait was so good I had a feeling she wasn't guessing. From what I knew about Luke's life (which wasn't much), the picture showed him just before he'd found out he was a half-blood and had run away from home.**

**Rachel stared at the portrait. Then she uncovered the next easel. This picture was even more disturbing. It showed the Empire State Building with lightning all around it. In the distance a dark storm was brewing, with a huge hand coming out of the clouds. At the base of the building a crowd had gathered . . . but it wasn't a normal crowd of tourists and pedestrians. I saw spears, javelins, and banners-the trappings of an army.**

**"Percy," Rachel muttered, as if she knew I was listening, "what is going on?"**

"Trust me," I told her, "I had no idea whatsoever."

The** dream faded, and the last thing I remember was wishing I could answer her question.**

**The next morning, I wanted to call her, but there were no phones at camp. Dionysus and Chiron didn't need a landline. They just called Olympus with an Iris-message whenever they needed something. And when demigods use cell phones, the signals agitate every monster within a hundred miles. It's like sending up a flare: Here I am! Please rearrange my face!**

"You know, you're kind of a pessimist," said Nico unhelpfully.

"Oh, like you're not?" Percy shot back.

**Even within the safe borders of camp, that's not the kind of advertising we wanted to do.**

**Most demigods (except for Annabeth and a few others) don't even own cell phones. And I definitely couldn't tell Annabeth, "Hey, let me borrow your phone so I can call Rachel!"**

"Yeah, not the smartest choice," I answered.

"Oh, thanks, your input really helps," replied Percy sarcastically.

"I knew it would!" I said cheerfully.

**To make the call, I would've had to leave camp and walk several miles to the nearest convenience store. Even if Chiron let me go, by the time I got there, Rachel would've been on the plane to St. Thomas.**

**I ate a depressing breakfast by myself at the Poseidon table. I kept staring at the fissure in the marble floor where two years ago Nico had banished a bunch of bloodthirsty skeletons to the Underworld. The memory didn't exactly improve my appetite.**

**After breakfast, Annabeth and I walked down to inspect the cabins. Actually, it was Annabeth's turn for inspection. My morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron. But since we both hated our jobs, we decided to do them together so it wouldn't be so heinous.**

**We started at the Poseidon cabin, which was basically just me. I'd made my bunk bed that morning (well, sort of) and straightened the Minotaur horn on the wall, so I gave myself a four out of five.**

**Annabeth made a face. "You're being generous." She used the end of her pencil to pick up an old pair of running** **shorts.**

Rachel gagged.

**I snatched them away. "Hey, give me a break. I don't have Tyson cleaning up after me this summer."**

"See!" Percy said, "Completely justified."

**"Three out of five," Annabeth said. I knew better than to argue, so we moved along.**

**I tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as we walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity. They were pretty depressing, and my ADHD brain did not like concentrating on depressing stuff.**

**Little battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country. Our friend Thalia, who led the Hunters of Artemis, hadn't been heard from in months, and if Artemis knew what had happened to them, she wasn't sharing information.**

"Well, sorry," said Thalia indignantly. "We were a little busy killing _monsters."_

"Sorry," Percy said.

**We visited the Aphrodite cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made. The clothes in everyone's footlockers were color coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills. I wanted to dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but Annabeth ignored me.**

**"Great job as usual, Silena," Annabeth said.**

**Silena nodded listlessly. The wall behind her bed was decorated with pictures of Beckendorf. She sat on her bunk with a box of chocolates on her lap, and I remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.**

**"You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. "My dad sent them. He thought-he thought they might cheer me up."**

**"Are they any good?" I asked.**

**She shook her head. "They taste like cardboard."**

**I didn't have anything against cardboard, so I tried one.**

"I think you're channeling a bit of me through your mind link, buddy," chuckled Grover.

"Yeah, that does sound like something he would say," I piped up.

**Annabeth passed. We promised to see Silena later and kept going.**

**As we crossed the commons area, a fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins. Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. I'd never seen the chariot before, but it looked like a pretty sweet ride. Soon, the roof of the Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it.**

**Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off.**

**Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry: "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! / I don't want to rhyme all day!"**

**Annabeth sighed. "Not that again. Last time Apollo cursed a cabin, it took a week for the rhyming couplets to wear off."**

**I shuddered. Apollo was god of poetry as well as archery, and I'd heard him recite in person. I'd almost rather yet shot by an arrow.**

"Sorry!" Percy shouted to the sky. "Not," he muttered under his breath.

**"What are they fighting about anyway?" I asked.**

**Annabeth ignored me while she scribbled on her inspection scroll, giving both cabins a one out of five.**

**I found myself staring at her, which was stupid since I'd seen her a billion times. She and I were about the same height this summer, which was a relief. Still, she seemed so much more mature. It was kind of intimidating. I mean, sure, she'd always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful.**

Thalia smiled mischievously at him.

"Oh, gods," said Percy scooting towards me, away from Thalia. "Your gonna bring this up for blackmailing purposes, huh?"

As he scooted towards me, I took advantage of him, and pulled his lips to mine. He had no problem responding.

We were so wrapped up, in fact, we did not hear Rachel's camera. Or Grover's video camera. Or Clarisse's whispered "Hey, guys! Over here!"

When we, ah, resurfaced, about half of camp was standing behind us.

Percy's sharp, witty retort was: "Heh heh, hey- hey guys. Why, uh, why're you guys all standing there?"

Me: "_Go away before I knife you and leave permanent damage!"_

I'm proud to say that got them running pretty quick. Thankfully, Thalia yelled at Travis and he quickly started reading once again.

**Finally she said, "That flying chariot."**

**"What?"**

**"You asked what they were fighting about."**

**"Oh. Oh, right."**

**"They captured it in a raid in Philadelphia last week. Some of Luke's demigods were there with that flying chariot. The Apollo cabin seized it during the battle, but the Ares cabin led the raid. So they've been fighting about who gets it ever since."**

**We ducked as Michael Yew's chariot dive-bombed an Ares camper. The Ares camper tried to stab him and cuss him out in rhyming couplets. He was pretty creative about rhyming those cuss words.**

"Why am I not surprised that an Ares kid can rhyme cuss words?" asked Connor.

**"We're fighting for our lives," I said, "and they're bickering about some stupid chariot."**

**"They'll get over it," Annabeth said. "Clarisse will come to her senses."**

**I wasn't so sure. That didn't sound like the Clarisse I knew.**

**I scanned more reports and we inspected a few more cabins. Demeter got a four. Hephaestus got a three and probably should've gotten lower, but with Beckendorf being gone and all, we cut them some slack. Hermes got a two, which was no surprise. All campers who didn't know their godly parentage were shoved into the Hermes cabin, and since the gods were kind of forgetful, that cabin was always overcrowded.**

**Finally we got to Athena's cabin, which was orderly and clean as usual. Books were straightened on the shelves. The armor was polished. Battle maps and blueprints decorated the walls. Only Annabeth's bunk was messy. It was covered in papers, and her silver laptop was still running.**

**"Vlacas," Annabeth muttered, which was basically calling herself an idiot in Greek.**

"Annabeth! How could you not clean your cabin. I am very disappointed in you!" Percy reprimanded me with a smile. This was payback for when I gave him a lengthy lecture when his cabin was messy.

Hey, did you know he had a green couch in his cabin? Well, he didn't know either until I made him clean it.

**Her second-in-command, Malcolm, suppressed a smile. "Yeah, um . . . we cleaned everything else. Didn't know if it was safe to move your notes."**

**That was probably smart. Annabeth had a bronze knife that she reserved just for monsters and people who messed with her stuff.**

I gave a small smile.

**Malcolm grinned at me. "We'll wait outside while you finish inspection." The Athena campers filed out the door while Annabeth cleaned up her bunk.**

**I shuffled uneasily and pretended to go through some more reports. Technically, even on inspection, it was against camp rules for two campers to be . . . like, alone in a cabin.**

**That rule had come up a lot when Silena and Beckendorf started dating. And I know some of you might be thinking, Aren't all demigods related on the godly side, and doesn't that make dating gross?**

"Yeah, I've always wondered, does it?" asked Rachel.

"This part's coming up," he promised her.

**But the thing is, the godly side of your family doesn't count, genetically speaking, since gods don't have DNA. A demigod would never think about dating someone who had the same godly parent. Like two kids from Athena cabin? No way. But a daughter of Aphrodite and a son of Hephaestus? They're not related. So it's no problem.**

**Anyway, for some strange reason I was thinking about this as I watched Annabeth straighten up.**

"Yeah, for _some reason,_" said Grover mockingly.

"You guys had this weird system, where you would slightly flirt with each other, and laugh, and be totally couple-y looking, and then ignore each other and shoot dirty looks at one another. It was infuriating!" grumbled Thalia.

To cover up my blush, I retorted,"Oooh, 'infuriating!' Big word!"

"Shut up."

"Love you too!"

**She closed her laptop, which had been given to her as a gift from the inventor Daedalus last summer.**

**I cleared my throat. "So . . . get any good info from that thing?"**

**"Too much," she said. "Daedalus had so many ideas, I could spend fifty years just trying to figure them all out."**

**"Yeah," I muttered. "That would be fun."**

I looked at my boyfriend. "Sarcastic much?"

"Sorry," he replied, but he didn't look it.

**She shuffled her papers-mostly drawings of buildings and a bunch of handwritten notes. I knew she wanted to be an architect someday, but I'd learned the hard way not to ask what she was working on. She'd start talking about angles and load-bearing joints until my eyes glazed over.**

**"You know . . ." She brushed her hair behind her ear, like she does when she's nervous. "This whole thing with Beckendorf and Silena. It kind of makes you think. About . . . what's important. About losing people who are important."**

**I nodded. My brain started seizing on little random details, like the fact that she was still wearing those silver owl earrings from her dad, who was this brainiac military history professor in San Francisco.**

**"Um, yeah," I stammered. "Like . . . is everything cool with your family?"**

**Okay, really stupid question, but hey, I was nervous.**

**Annabeth looked disappointed, but she nodded.**

**"My dad wanted to take me to Greece this summer," she said wistfully. "I've always wanted to see-"**

**"The Parthenon," I remembered.**

**She managed a smile. "Yeah."**

**"That's okay. There'll be other summers, right?"**

"You bonehead!" Thalia exclaimed.

**As soon as I said it, I realized it was a boneheaded** comment.

Thalia blinked in surprise.

**I was facing the end of my days. Within a week, Olympus might fall. If the Age of the Gods really did end, the world as we knew it would dissolve into chaos. Demigods would be hunted to extinction. There would be no more summers for us.**

**Annabeth stared at her inspection scroll. "Three out five," she muttered, "for a sloppy head counselor. Come on. Let's finish your reports and get back to Chiron."**

**On the way to the Big House, we read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in Canada. If possible, the note made me feel even worse.**

**" 'Dear Grover,'" I read aloud. " 'Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger.**

"Badger's can be evil?" Connor asked aloud with a snicker.

**Tried to do as you suggested and summon power of Pan. No effect. Many naiads' trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you? -Gleeson Hedge, protector.'"**

**Annabeth grimaced. "You haven't heard anything from him? Even with your empathy link?"**

**I shook my head dejectedly.**

**Ever since last summer when the god Pan had died, our friend Grover had been drifting farther and farther away.**

**The Council of Cloven Elders treated him like an outcast, but Grover still traveled all over the East Coast, trying to spread the word about Pan and convince nature spirits to protect their own little bits of the wild. He'd only come back to camp a few times to see his girlfriend, Juniper.**

**Last I'd heard he was in Central Park organizing the dryads, but nobody had seen or heard from him in two months. We'd tried to send Iris-messages. They never got through. I had an empathy link with Grover, so I hoped I would know if anything bad happened to him. Grover had told me one time that if he died, the empathy link might kill me too. But I wasn't sure if that was still true or not.**

**I wondered if he was still in Manhattan. Then I thought about my dream of Rachel's sketch-dark clouds closing on the city, an army gathered around the Empire State Building.**

**"Annabeth." I stopped her by the tetherball court. I knew I was asking for trouble, but I didn't know who else to trust. Plus, I'd always depended on Annabeth for advice. "Listen, I had this dream about, um,** **Rachel . . ."**

"You idiot," said Thalia smoothly. "How could you go through with it? You even _thought _about it, for Zeus's sake!"

"Well-"

"But you just went through with it, because you, are you."

"I obviously wasn't thinking! And let's face it, you've made mistakes too!" he shot back.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Thalia asked coolly, but then added,"Never mind. Continue Travis."

**I told her the whole thing, even the weird picture of Luke as a child.**

**For a while she didn't say anything. Then she rolled up her inspection scroll so tight she ripped it.**

**"What do you want me to say?"**

**"I'm not sure. You're the best strategist I know. If you were Kronos planning this war, what would you do next?"**

**"I'd use Typhon as a distraction. Then I'd hit Olympus directly, while the gods were in the West."**

**"Just like in Rachel's picture."**

"Not smart."

"I'm aware."

**"Percy," she said, her voice tight, "Rachel is just a mortal."**

**"But what if her dream is true? Those other Titans-they said Olympus would be destroyed in a matter of days. They said they had plenty of other challenges. And what's with that picture of Luke as a kid-"**

**"We'll just have to be ready."**

**"How?" I said. "Look at our camp. We can't even stop fighting each other. And I'm supposed to get my stupid soul reaped."**

**She threw down her scroll. "I knew we shouldn't have shown you the prophecy." Her voice was angry and hurt. "All it did was scare you. You run away from things when you're scared."**

**I stared at her, completely stunned. "Me? Run away?"**

**She got right in my face. "Yes, you. You're a coward, Percy Jackson!"**

**We were nose to nose. Her eyes were red, and I suddenly realized that when she called me a coward, maybe she wasn't talking about the prophecy.**

**"If you don't like our chances," she said, "maybe you should go on that vacation with Rachel."**

**"Annabeth-"**

**"If you don't like our company."**

**"That's not fair!"**

**She pushed past me and stormed toward the strawberry fields. She hit the tetherball as she passed and sent it spinning angrily around the pole.**

"I was surprised it didn't break," muttered Percy.

"Me too," said Connor cheerfully. "Our Annabeth's got one mean right hook. And an even meaner left."

Nico rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. I gave a small smile in recognition. I had punched him in the face when he accidentally walked in on Percy and me, er, kissing.

**I'd like to say my day got better from there. Of course it didn't.**

**That afternoon we had an assembly at the campfire to burn Beckendorf's burial shroud and say our good-byes. Even the Ares and Apollo cabins called a temporary truce to attend.**

Any smiles in that clearing melted and sank into the ground.

**Beckendorf's shroud was made out of metal links, like chain mail. I didn't see how it would burn, but the Fates must've been helping out.**

"Nah," said Travis sadly. "I asked Jake, and he said that the metal was made that way, with a little help from Hephaestus."

**The metal melted in the fire and turned to golden smoke, which rose into the sky. The campfire flames always reflected the campers' moods, and today they burned black.**

**I hoped Beckendorf's spirit would end up in Elysium. Maybe he'd even choose to be reborn and try for Elysium in three different lifetimes so he could reach the Isles of the Blest, which was like the Underworld's ultimate party headquarters. If anyone deserved it, Beckendorf did.**

**Annabeth left without a word to me. Most of the other campers drifted off to their afternoon activities. I just stood there staring at the dying fire. Silena sat nearby crying, while Clarisse and her boyfriend, Chris Rodriguez, tried to comfort her.**

**Finally I got up the nerve to walk over. "Hey, Silena, I'm really sorry."**

**She sniffled. Clarisse glared at me, but she always glares at everyone.**

"Not at me!" said Chris gleefully. Clarisse blushed- _blushed!_- and playfully bumped hips with him.

**Chris would barely look at me. He'd been one of Luke's men until Clarisse rescued him from the Labyrinth last summer, and I guess he still felt guilty about it.**

**I cleared my throat. "Silena, you know Beckendorf carried your picture. He looked at it right before we went into battle. You meant a lot to him. You made the last year the best of his life."**

**Silena sobbed.**

**"Good work, Percy," Clarisse muttered.**

**"No, it's all right," Silena said. "Thank . . . thank you, Percy. I should go."**

**"You want company?" Clarisse asked.**

**Silena shook her head and ran off.**

**"She's stronger than she looks," Clarisse muttered, almost to herself. "She'll survive."**

**"You could help with that," I suggested. "You could honor Beckendorf's memory by fighting with us."**

**Clarisse went for her knife, but it wasn't there anymore. She'd thrown it on the Ping-Pong table in the Big House.**

**"Not my problem," she growled. "My cabin doesn't get honor, I don't fight."**

**I noticed she wasn't speaking in rhymes. Maybe she hadn't been around when her cabinmates got cursed, or maybe she had a way of breaking the spell.**

**With a chill, I wondered if Clarisse could be Kronos's spy at camp. Was that why she was keeping her cabin out of the fight? But as much as I disliked Clarisse, spying for the Titans didn't seem like her style.**

**"All right," I told her. "I didn't want to bring this up, but you owe me one. You'd be rotting in a Cyclops's cave in the Sea of Monsters if it wasn't for me."**

**She clenched her jaw. "Any other favor, Percy. Not this. The Ares cabin has been dissed too many times. And don't think I don't know what people say about me behind my back."**

**I wanted to say, "Well, it's true." But I bit my tongue.**

"Good choice," Clarisse commented.

**"So, what-you're just going to let Kronos crush us?" I asked.**

**"If you want my help so bad, tell Apollo to give us the chariot."**

**"You're such a big baby."**

**She charged me, but Chris got between us.**

**"Whoa, guys," he said. "Clarisse, you know, maybe he's got a point."**

**She sneered at him. "Not you too!" She trudged off with Chris at her heels.**

**"Hey, wait! I just meant-Clarisse, wait!"**

**I watched the last sparks from Beckendorf's fire curl into the afternoon sky. Then I headed toward the sword-fighting arena. I needed a break, and I wanted to see an old friend.**

****"That's the end of the chapter," finished Travis.

A/n Hey guys, sorry for the kind of late update, but here it is. Did anyone see the new spiderman movie? i think it was pretty good. If you want, probably not, but I'm bored, you can shoot me a PM and we'll rant and have a fangirl chat about it.

Anyways, review, and thanks for reading!


	6. I Drive My Dog Into A Tree

AN: Hello my dears! I know, I know, you're first instinct is to slap me upside the head for not updating in, like, two years. But PLEASE read the author's note at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO series.

I'd like to thank jlmill 9 for typing out the book's text and letting me use it. It saved me a TON of time.

**Percy POV**

Chapter 5

"I'll read next," Nico offered.

Travis handed the book to him, and read,"**I**** Drive My Dog Into a Tree." **

"Percy!" Grover yelled indignantly.

"Yeah, dude, what the Hades?" said Connor with a frown.

I facepalmed as I protested, " No, I didn't- it was like- no one actually- oh, forget it."

**Mrs. O'Leary saw me before I saw her, which was a pretty good trick considering she's the size of ****a garbage truck. **

"No," Rachel said thoughfully, "It's more like one of those large Jeeps."

"No, it's a garbage truck."

"No."

"Yes."

"_No."_

"_Yes." _

"You know, it's not nice to judge someone by their size," she said teasingly.

"You're correcting my judgement!" I said with a scowl.

Rachel smiled cheekily as she Annabeth high-fived her.

**I walked into the arena, and a wall of darkness slammed into me.**

**"WOOF!"**

**The next thing I knew I was flat on the ground with a huge paw on my chest and an oversize ****Brillo-pad tongue licking my face.**

"That's happened to me at least three times," Clarisse said flatly. "I was lucky I had armor on those times."

"I'm pretty sure that has happened to everyone in camp at least once," Annabeth said dryly.

**"Ow!" I said. "Hey, girl. Good to see you too. Ow!"**

**It took a few minutes for Mrs. O'Leary to calm down and get off me. By then I was pretty much ****drenched in dog drool. **

"We could totally use some of that in our 'shaving cream in the sleeping bag' prank," Connor whispered to Travis.

"Nice!" Travis grinned, and as they went to bump fists they stopped, becuase of the pointed look Annabeth was giving them.

That's the love of my life, people.

**She wanted to play fetch, so I picked up a bronze shield and tossed it ****across the arena.**

**By the way, Mrs. O'Leary is the world's only friendly hellhound.**

**I kind of inherited her when her previous owner died. She lived at camp, but Beckendorf . . . well, ****Beckendorf used to take care of her whenever I was ****gone. He had smelted Mrs. O'Leary's ****favorite bronze chewing bone. He'd forged her collar with the little smiley face and a crossbones****name tag. Next to me, Beckendorf had been her best friend.**

**Thinking about that made me sad all over again, but I threw the shield a few more times because ****Mrs. O'Leary insisted.**

**Soon she started barking-a sound slightly louder than an artillery gun-like she needed to go for a ****walk. **

**The other campers didn't think it was funny when she went to the bathroom in the arena.**

"No, we don't," the campers said in unison.

**It had caused more than one unfortunate slip-and-slide accident. So I opened the gates of the ****arena, and she bounded straight toward the woods.**

Grover chuckled. "She relieved herself on Juniper's juniper once."

**I jogged after her, not too concerned that she was getting ahead. Nothing in the woods could ****threaten Mrs. O'Leary. Even the dragons and giant scorpions ran away when she came close.**

**When I finally tracked her down, she wasn't using the facilities. **

"They have bathrooms for her in the woods?"

I rolled my eyes.

**She was in a familiar clearing ****where the Council of Cloven Elders had once put Grover on trial. The place didn't look so good.**

Grover paled. "Oh gods. Did...did she..."

"No," I answered with a chuckle.

**The grass had turned yellow. The three topiary thrones had lost all their leaves. But that's not ****what surprised me. In the middle of the glade stood the weirdest trio I'd ever seen: Juniper the ****tree nymph, Nico di Angelo, and a very old, very fat satyr.**

"Why is it weird?" Nico asked.

**Nico was the only one who didn't seem freaked out by Mrs. O'Leary's appearance.**

**He looked pretty much like I'd seen him in my dream-an aviator's jacket, black jeans, and a T-shirt****with dancing skeletons on it, like one of those Day of the Dead pictures. **

**His Stygian iron ****sword hung at his side. He was only twelve, but he looked much older and sadder.**

**He nodded when he saw me, then went back to scratching Mrs. O'Leary's ears. She sniffed his ****legs like he was the most interesting thing since rib-eye steaks.**

"Yum," Thalia said, at the same time Grover wrinkled his nose and said, "Ew."

**Being the son of Hades, he'd ****probably been traveling in all sorts of hellhound-friendly places.**

**The old satyr didn't look nearly so happy. "Will someone-what is this underworld creature doing ****in my forest!" He waved his arms and trotted on his hooves as if the grass were hot. **

**"You there, ****Percy Jackson! Is this your beast?"**

**"Sorry, Leneus," I said. "That's your name, right?"**

**The satyr rolled his eyes. His fur was dust-bunny gray, and a spiderweb grew between his horns.**

"Eurgh," Annabeth commented. "Spiders were on his head and he didn't notice?"

**His belly would've made him an invincible bumper car. "Well, of course I'm Leneus. Don't tell ****me you've forgotten a member of the Council so quickly. Now, call off your beast!"**

**"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary said happily.**

**The old satyr gulped. "Make it go away! Juniper, I will not help you under these circumstances!"**

**Juniper turned toward me. She was pretty in a dryad-y way,**

"Woah there, back it up," Grover started, and Annabeth cleared her throat and looked at me pointedly.

I put my hands up in universal not-my-fault gesture. "I was just trying to give a description, don't flip out o-"

They burst out laughing.

I blinked. "What just happened?"

Grover laughed, "We're just kidding Percy," as Annabeth was trying to hold it together. It sounded like she was choking.

"I... I can't... believe you... you would think I'd be that jealous!" she sputtered as she tried to hold in her laughter.

**with her purple gossamer dress and her elfish face, but her eyes were green-tinted with**

**chlorophyll from crying.**

**"Percy," she sniffled. "I was just asking about Grover. I know something's happened. He ****wouldn't stay gone this long if he wasn't in trouble. I was hoping that Leneus-"**

**"I told you!" the satyr protested. "You are better off without that traitor."**

Protest on Grover's behalf broke out in the circle, and he looked down bashfully.

**Juniper stamped her foot. "He is not a traitor! He's the bravest satyr ever, and I want to know**

**where he is!"**

**"WOOF!"**

**Leneus's knees started knocking. "I . . . I won't answer questions with this hellhound sniffing my ****tail!"**

Thalia broke out into sudden laughter.

"Um, are you all right?" I asked with concern.

"It's because she's a dog!" she laughed, holding her sides.

"...Yes, that's correct."

"And _she _was chasing _his _tail! Get it? _Get it?" _

Annabeth shook her head.

**Nico looked like he was trying to not crack up.**

**"I'll walk the dog," he volunteered.**

**He whistled, and Mrs. O'Leary bounded after him to the far end of the grove.**

**Leneus huffed indignantly and brushed the twigs off his shirt. "Now, as I was trying to explain,**

**young lady, your boyfriend has not sent any reports since we voted him into exile."**

**"You tried to vote him into exile," I corrected. "Chiron and Dionysus stopped you."**

**"Bah! They are honorary Council members. It wasn't a proper vote."**

**"I'll tell Dionysus you said that."**

**Leneus paled. "I only meant . . . Now see here, Jackson. This is none of your business."**

**"Grover's my friend," I said. "He wasn't lying to you about Pan's death. I saw it myself. You**

**were just too scared to accept the truth."**

**Leneus's lips quivered. "No! Grover's a liar and good riddance. We're better off without him." **

More indignant protest on Grover's behalf.

**I pointed at the withered thrones. "If things are going so well, where are your friends? Looks like**

**your Council hasn't been meeting lately."**

**"Maron and Silenus . . . I . . . I'm sure they'll be back," he said, but I could hear the panic in his ****voice. "They're just taking some time off to think. It's been a very unsettling year.**

"Maybe they were on a cheese enchilada run," Grover said.

**"It's going to get a lot more unsettling," I promised. "Leneus, we need Grover. There's got to be a****way you can find him with your magic."**

**The old satyr's eye twitched. "I'm telling you, I've heard nothing. Perhaps he's dead." **

**Juniper choked back a sob.**

**"He's not dead," I said. "I can feel that much."**

**"Empathy links," Leneus said disdainfully. "Very unreliable."**

"Well how would you know?" I asked angrily.

**"So ask around," I insisted. "Find him. There's a war coming. Grover was preparing the nature ****spirits."**

**"Without my permission! And it's not our war."**

**I grabbed him by the shirt, which seriously wasn't like me, but the stupid old goat was making ****me mad. "Listen, Leneus. When Kronos attacks, he's going to have packs of hellhounds. He's ****going to destroy everything in his path-mortals, gods, demigods. Do you think he'll let the satyrs ****go free? You're supposed to be a leader. So LEAD. Get out there and see what's happening. Find ****Grover and bring Juniper some news. Now, GO!"**

**I didn't push him very hard, but he was kind of top-heavy. **

"_He_ needs to lay off the cheese enchiladas," I commented.

**He fell on his furry rump, then ****scrambled to his hooves and ran away with his belly jiggling. "Grover will never be accepted! He**

**will die an outcast!"**

Even _more _angry protests on behalf of Grover.

**When he'd disappeared into the bushes, Juniper wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Percy. I didn't mean ****to get you involved. Leneus is still a lord of the Wild. You don't want to make an enemy of him."**

**"No problem," I said. "I've got worse enemies than overweight satyrs."**

**Nico walked back to us. "Good job, Percy. Judging from the trail of goat pellets, I'd say you**

**shook him up pretty well."**

**I was afraid I knew why Nico was here, but I tried for a smile. "Welcome back. Did you come by**

**just to see Juniper?"**

**He blushed. "Um, no. That was an accident. I kind of . . . dropped into the middle of their ****conversation."**

**"**You really have to work on your locating skills.

**"He scared us to death!" Juniper said. "Right out of the shadows. But, Nico, you are the son of ****Hades and all. Are you sure you haven't heard anything about Grover?"**

**Nico shifted his weight. "Juniper, like I tried to tell you . . . even if Grover died, he would ****reincarnate into something else in nature. I can't sense things like that, only mortal souls."**

**"But if you do hear anything?" she pleaded, putting her hand on his arm. "Anything at all?"**

**Nico's cheeks got even brighter red. "Uh, you bet. I'll keep my ears open."**

**"We'll find him, Juniper," I promised. "Grover's alive, I'm sure. There must be a simple reason ****why he hasn't contacted us."**

**She nodded glumly. "I hate not being able to leave the forest. He could be anywhere, and I'm ****stuck here waiting. Oh, if that silly goat has gotten himself hurt-"**

"That sounds oddly familiar,"Grover said.

"Really?" I asked. "Who?"

"It goes a little something like this," he said, and in a falsetto, "'I swear to the gods, if Seaweed Brain is killed, I'll bring him back from the Underworld to kill him myself!'"

Annabeth shrugged, "That does sound like me. Except, my voice is _not _that high."

**Mrs. O'Leary bounded back over and took an interest in Juniper's dress.**

**Juniper yelped. "Oh, no you don't! I know about dogs and trees. I'm gone!"**

**She went poof into green mist. Mrs. O'Leary looked disappointed, but she lumbered off to find**

**another target, leaving Nico and me alone.**

**Nico tapped his sword on the ground. A tiny mound of animal bones erupted from the dirt. They**

**knit themselves together into a skeletal field mouse and scampered off. "I was sorry to hear about**

**Beckendorf."**

"Aww, c'mon dude, we were just starting to come to terms with that," Travis complained.

**A lump formed in my throat. "How did you-"**

**"I talked to his ghost."**

**"Oh . . . right." I'd never get used to the fact that this twelve-year-old kid spent more time talking ****with the dead than the living.**

**"Did he say anything?"**

**"He doesn't blame you. He figured you'd be beating yourself up, and he said you shouldn't."**

**"Is he going to try for rebirth?"**

**Nico shook his head. "He's staying in Elysium. Said he's waiting for someone. Not sure what he ****meant, but he seems okay with death."**

"Silena," Clarisse whispered sadly.

**It wasn't much comfort, but it was something.**

**"I had a vision you were on Mount Tam," I told Nico. "Was that-"**

**"Real," he said. "I didn't mean to be spying on the Titans, but I was in the neighborhood."**

**"Doing what?"**

**Nico tugged at his sword belt. "Following a lead on . . . you know, my family."**

**I nodded. I knew his past was a painful subject. Until two years ago, he and his sister Bianca had ****been frozen in time at a place called the Lotus Hotel and Casino.**

Grover, Annabeth, and I all shuddered.

**They'd been there for like ****seventy years. Eventually a mysterious lawyer rescued them and checked them into a boarding ****school, but Nico had no memories of his life before the casino.**

**He didn't know anything about his ****mother. He didn't know who the lawyer was, or why they'd been frozen in time or allowed to go ****free.**

**After Bianca died and left Nico alone, **

Nico stopped reading and inhaled shakily. Everyone looked at him sympathetically, and Clarisse patted him on the back in a rare moment of empathy.

He took a deep breath, and muttered, "I'm fine."

**he'd been obsessed with finding answers.**

**"So how did it go?" I asked. "Any luck?"**

**"No," he murmured. "But I may have a new lead soon."**

**"What's the lead?"**

**Nico chewed his lip. ****"That's not important right now. You know why I'm here."**

**A feeling of dread started to build in my chest. Ever since Nico first proposed his plan for beating ****Kronos last summer, I'd had nightmares about it. He would show up occasionally and press me ****for an answer, but I kept putting him off.**

Annabeth's eyes widened. "So _you _gave him the idea to bathe in the River Styx?!" She glared at Nico.

His eyes widened and his hands jerked up to protect his face from what he thought was going to be a beating.

"Woah, Annabeth, calm down. It's not his fault," I said.

"Actually, you're right. It's your fault too. When I asked you about it, you were all 'oh, i only bathed a little. Just a dip in the water.'"

"I did not!"

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Okay, but, not _exactly _like that."

"Oh my gods, they're having a lovers' spat!" Connor shrieked.

We glared at him.

**"Nico, I don't know," I said. "It seems pretty extreme."**

**"You've got Typhon coming in, what . . . a week? Most of the other Titans are unleashed now and ****on Kronos's side. Maybe it's time to think extreme."**

**I looked back toward the camp. Even from this distance I could hear the Ares and Apollo ****campers fighting again, yelling curses and spouting bad poetry.**

"It's not so bad, it's really more that it's ridiculously cheesy," Chris said.

**"They're no match for the Titan army," Nico said. "You know that. This comes down to you and ****Luke. And there's only one way you can beat Luke."**

**I remembered the fight on the Princess Andromeda. I'd been hopelessly outmatched. Kronos had ****almost killed me with a single cut to my arm, and I couldn't even wound him. **

**Riptide had ****glanced right off his skin.**

**"We can give you the same power," Nico urged. "You heard the Great Prophecy. Unless you want ****to have your soul reaped by a cursed blade . . ."**

Annabeth paled.

**I wondered how Nico had heard the prophecy- probably from some ghost.**

**"You can't prevent a prophecy," I said.**

**"But you can fight it." Nico had a strange, hungry light in his eyes.**

**"You can become invincible."**

**"Maybe we should wait. Try to fight without-"**

**"No!" Nico snarled. "It has to be now!"**

**I stared at him. I hadn't seen his temper flare like that in a long time. "Urn, you sure you're ****okay?"**

**He took a deep breath. "Percy, all I mean . . . when the fighting starts, we won't be able to make ****the journey. This is our last chance. I'm sorry if I'm being too pushy, but two years ago my sister ****gave her life to protect you. I want you to honor that. Do whatever it takes to stay alive and defeat ****Kronos."**

**I didn't like the idea. Then I thought about Annabeth calling me a coward, and I got angry.**

"Sorry," Annabeth said.

**Nico had a point. If Kronos attacked New York, the campers would be no match for his forces. I ****had to do something. Nico's way was dangerous-maybe even deadly. But it might give me a ****fighting edge.**

**"All right," I decided. "What do we do first?"**

**His cold creepy smile made me sorry I'd agreed.**

"Well, gee thanks a lot," Nico said flatly.

**"First we'll need to retrace Luke's steps. We need to know more about his past, his childhood."**

**I shuddered, thinking about Rachel's picture from my dream-a smiling nine-year-old Luke.**

**"Why do we need to know about that?"**

**"I'll explain when we get there," Nico said. "I've already tracked down his mother. She lives in ****Connecticut.****  
><strong>

**I stared at him. I'd never thought much about Luke's mortal parent. I'd met his dad, Hermes, ****but his mom . . .**

**"Luke ran away when he was really young," I said. "I didn't think his mom was alive."**

**"Oh, she's alive." The way he said it made me wonder what was wrong with her. What kind of ****horrible person could she be?**

"She's not horrible," Annabeth said sadly.

**"Okay . . ." I said. "So how do we get to Connecticut? I can call Blackjack-"**

**"No." Nico scowled. "Pegasi don't like me, and the feeling is mutual. But there's no need for ****flying." He whistled, and Mrs. O'Leary came loping out of the woods.**

**"Your friend here can help." Nico patted her head. "You haven't tried shadow travel yet?"**

**"Shadow travel?"**

A collective _Ohhhhhh _rang out from the circle. _  
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**Nico whispered in Mrs. O'Leary's ear. She tilted her head, suddenly alert.**

**"Hop on board," Nico told me.**

**I'd never considered riding a dog before, but Mrs. O'Leary was certainly big enough. I climbed ****onto her back and held her collar.**

**"This will make her very tired," Nico warned, "so you can't do it often. And it works best at ****night. But all shadows are part of the same substance. There is only one darkness, and creatures**

**of the Underworld can use it as a road, or a door."**

**"I don't understand," I said.**

**"No," Nico said. "It took me a long time to learn. But Mrs. O'Leary knows. Tell her where to go.**

**Tell her Westport, the home of May Castellan."**

**"You're not coming?"**

**"Don't worry," he said. "I'll meet you there."**

**I was a little nervous, but I leaned down to Mrs. O'Leary's ear. "Okay, girl. Uh, can you take me**

**to Westport, Connecticut? May Castellan's place?"**

"Wouldn't it be great if she could speak back?" Rachel said.

I looked at her.

"What?" she said defensively. "I've been reading a lot Harry Potter, okay?"

**Mrs. O'Leary sniffed the air. She looked into the gloom of the forest. Then she bounded forward,**

**straight into an oak tree.**

**Just before we hit, we passed into shadows as cold as the dark side of the moon.**

"That's it," Nico announced.

_AN: _Sooooooooooo. Um, I'm back? Kind of? To be honest, I have no excuse for not updating in 2+ years. I've been lazy. Future updates will most likely be quite sparse. I'm only updating now because it's now summer vacation. However, since I'm taking a class over the summer, doing English reading homework, getting ahead for my AP classes, and having marching band practices, my schedule's a freaking mess. I will try to update, but please do not get your hopes up.

However, I want to thank ALL of you for reviewing, favoriting and following this story and me. I cannot express the happiness I felt when I looked at my stats. Like, seriously people, I think I'm going to cry. 50 REVIEWS?! *Squeal* You guys are absolutely AMAZEBALLS. I love you sooo much.

(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

See, look! Cookies for you guys!

No, but in all seriousness, I really do want to thank you. I've been going through some stuff lately, which could be part of not updating. It's nothing big, or life changing, but it has kinda messed up some stuff.

Hope you liked the chapter, sorry if it wasn't the best. I'm a bit rusty. Don't forget to review. Constructive critique is great, but if it's really that bad, try to soften the blow. Be mindful of my feelings. I can be super sensitive :/. Flames are not appreciated.


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